"If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument"

- Eve Arnold

b. 1912

d. 2012

American

Estates

Personal website

Eve Arnold was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Russian immigrant parents. She began photographing in 1946, while working at a photo-finishing plant in New York City, and then studied photography in 1948 with Alexei Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Arnold first became associated with Magnum Photos in 1951 and became a full member in 1957. She was based in the US during the 1950s but went to England in 1962 to put her son through school; except for a six-year interval when she worked in the US and China, she lived in the UK for the rest of her life.

Her time in China led to her first major solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1980, where she showed the resulting images. In the same year, she received the National Book Award for In China and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers.

In later years, she received many other honours and awards. In 1995, she was made fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and elected Master Photographer – the world’s most prestigious photographic honour – by New York’s International Center of Photography. In 1996, she received the Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for In Retrospect. The following year she was granted honorary degrees by the University of St Andrews, Staffordshire University, and the American International University in London; she was also appointed to the advisory committee of the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford, UK. She has had twelve books published.

Eve passed away in January of 2012.

Education

1948 Photography, The New School for Social Research, New York, USA

Awards

2003 Order of the British Empire, UK

1997 Member, Advisory Committee of the National Museum of Photography, Film &

Television, Bradford, UK

1997 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humanities, the American International University

in London, UK

1997 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters, Staffordshire University, Stoke on Trent, UK

1997 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science, University of St. Andrews, UK

1996 Kraszna-Krausz Book Award (for In Retrospect)

1995 Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, UK

1995 Master Photographer, International Center of Photography, New York, USA

1980 National Book Award (for In China)

1980 Lifetime Achievement Award, the American Society of Magazine Photographers, USA

Exhibitions

2005 Marilyn Monroe by Eve Arnold, Halcyon Gallery, London, UK

1996 Women to Women (in conjunction with Inge Morath), Japan Professional

Photographic Society, Tokyo, Japan

1996 In Retrospect (16 venues) – Barbican, London, UK; Australia, Spain, Italy,

USA

1980 In China – Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA

Books

2009 Eve’s Arnold’s People, Thames & Hudson, UK

2005 Marilyn Monroe by Eve Arnold, Washington Green/Halcyon, UK; Harry A. Abrams, USA

2004 Eve Arnold Hand Book, Bloomsbury, USA

2002 Eve Arnold: Film Journal, Bloomsbury, USA

2001 Ciné-Roman, Cahiers du Cinéma, France

1996 Keepsakes: The Photography of Eve Arnold in Retrospect, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin, Texas

1995 In Retrospect, Alfred A. Knopf, USA; Christopher Sinclair Stevenson, UK

1991 The Great British, Alfred A. Knopf, USA; (Eve Arnold), Christopher Sinclair Stevenson, UK

1989 All in a Day’s Work, Bantam Books, USA; Hamish Hamilton, UK

1988 Private View: Inside Baryshnikov’s American Ballet Theatre, Bantam Books, USA

1987 Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation, Alfred A. Knopf, USA

1983 In America, Alfred A. Knopf, USA; Secker & Warburg, UK

1980 In China, Alfred A. Knopf, USA; Hutchinson, UK

1978 Flashback! The 50s, Alfred A. Knopf, USA

1976 The Unretouched Woman, Alfred A. Knopf, USA; Jonathon Cape, UK

Read More

Selected works

Politics

Malcolm X and the Black Muslims

Eve Arnold

Eve Arnold's profile of prominent member of The Nation of Islam Malcolm X took her from Churches to street corners

Open story

From the Magnum Shop

Most Recent

Newsroom

The Red Scare

Theme | 36 Stories

New York: Photographing the City

Theory & Practice

Making the Image: Eve Arnold’s Portrait of a Pensive Marilyn Monroe

Eve Arnold

Arts & Culture

Magnum on Set: The Misfits

Eve Arnold

Theme | 12 Stories

Magnum Contact Sheets

Theme | 11 Stories

Magnum On Set

Arts & Culture

Denim: Through the Magnum Archive

Magnum Photographers
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