Eve Arnold

Eve Arnold was born in 1912 in Philadelphia. It was in 1946, when her interest in photography was sparked while working in a photofinishing plant in New York. It took her just more than six weeks to learn photography skills under Alexey Brodovitch, the art director at Harper’s Bazaar from Manhattan’s New School for Social Research.

Arnold’s photographic subjects have been iconic individuals who fashioned twentieth century’s second half, however she also documented the lives of the dispossessed and underprivileged people. For her nobody was extraordinary or ordinary, they were simply people antecedent to her lens.

She illuminated the golden age of journalistic photography when publications like Look and Life dominated over the attention of readers with impressive images by exploratory photographers, such as Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks, and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

She gained the trust of celebrities and then captured their intimate moments. This strategy helped her develop a unique understanding with Marilyn Monroe who’s images were included in a photographic book by Eve Arnold. From 1951, she had been photographing Monroe. The most memorable images of Monroe was on the set during the making of The Misfits, 1961. In 2005, some concealed photos of the actress were exhibited at the Halcyon Gallery in London. Apart from Monroe, Arnold took pictures of Malcolm X, Joan Crawford, and Queen Elizabeth II.