Description

Eve Arnold began photographing Marilyn Monroe after the actress saw her pictures of Marlene Dietrich in Esquire. They met at a party and Monroe posited: “If you could do that well with Marlene, can you imagine what you can do with me?” So began their professional relationship, which, other the years, turned into a mutually respectful friendship.

Arnold photographed Monroe six times during the decade she knew her, the shortest session was two hours and the longest was two months, when she saw her daily during the filming of The Misfits.

What drove me and kept me going over the decades? If I had to use a single word, it would be 'curiosity.'

Marilyn Monroe
© Eve Arnold | Magnum Photos

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.

Joining Magnum in 1957 as the agency’s first female photographer, Arnold captured some of the most significant individuals and groups of the era. She is well known for her intimate portraits of Marilyn Monroe, with whom she became good friends.

Other significant projects include her documentation of the Nation of Islam and the black fashion world of 1950s Harlem, as well as her extensive work in China, for which she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers. Eve Arnold died in January 2012.

© Eve Arnold | Magnum Photos

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