Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation

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Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation

Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation

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During the 1990s, Eve – then in her eighties – became a “very active” vice-president of Magnum Photos. In 2003, she was made an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II (whom she had photographed in the late 1960s.) By the time they reached Bement, Marilyn was exhausted. After a short rest, she was ready to face her public: she judged a group of bearded men in a Lincoln lookalike contest, admired the few pieces of art on display at Bryant Cottage, and finally, gave her speech. Eve Arnold in 1997. A self-professed workaholic, she held characteristically trenchant views on the minority – and at times marginalised – status of female photojournalists. Photograph: Jane Bown for the Observer Nonetheless, Monroe was at her most creative when being photographed. “If it is true, as some has said of her, that all her life she pursued a search for a missing person – herself –“ Arnold mused, “then perhaps Marilyn, a creature of myth and illusion, found herself not in the fleeting film image, but in the photograph, which would seem to give her concrete proof of her being.” As the Sixties began, Eve photographed the new First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, reading to her young daughter. She travelled to Virginia to document the emerging Civil Rights movement.

At this time, she was a starlet and still relatively unknown,” Eve continued. “She had just appeared in a small part in ‘The Asphalt Jungle’.” That movie, directed by Huston, was released in 1950. (It may well be the case that Eve first met Marilyn shortly after, as they were introduced to each other by photographer Sam Shaw, Marilyn’s friend since 1951. However, the Dietrich story was published in 1952, by which time Marilyn was becoming a household name.) Arnold, also self-taught, related to Marilyn’s intuitive style. “We were both gamblers,” she reflected. “We both trusted ourselves and each other to carry us through.” Eve Arnold – photojournalist". Art Fine. Archived from the original on July 1, 2013 . Retrieved September 2, 2010. These words evoke Marilyn’s mood when Eve Arnold arrived in Nevada. It was midway through the shoot, and Monroe had just returned from a week’s rest in a Los Angeles hospital, during which time filming had been halted.In 1952, Eve photographed Marlene Dietrich in the recording studio, recording the hits that had made her famous during the war. A few years later at a party in Hollywood, Eve was introduced to Marilyn Monroe, who was just starting out in her career. Monroe had seen Eve’s pictures of Dietrich and said to her “If you could do that with her, just imagine what you could do with me.” Eve became friends with Monroe and photographed her several times over a ten year period. Michael Arnold said his grandmother grew up as one of nine children in a poor Russian Jewish immigrant family. “She didn’t talk about this much but it definitely had a bearing on her desire to make photography accessible to all.” I loved hearing the story of how Eve got her first big break as a photographer when I was growing up. To me it was like magic that someone could even achieve this: Another round of interviews followed. Eve’s photographs of this eccentric junket are touching and funny. A demure, elegant Marilyn greeted each well-wisher, young and old, rich and poor, with unaffected warmth. Arnold was born in Philadelphia, the middle of nine children of William Cohen (born Velvel Sklarski), a rabbi, and his wife, Bessie (Bosya Laschiner). Her mother had initial doubts about her daughter's choice of career. "I remember how she struggled all her life, raising all these children, and how her English always remained quirky. Eventually she accepted what I did, but grudgingly. When I did the Life magazine story on the first five minutes of a baby's life, she said: 'What's to be proud of?'"

I have been poor and I wanted to document poverty; I had lost a child and I was obsessed with birth; I was interested in politics and I wanted to know how it affected our lives; I am a woman and I wanted to know about women.” In one striking photograph, currently on show at the group exhibition Hollywood at Berlin’s Museum of Photography, Monroe stands pensively – her solitary frame surrounded by the vast desert as she anxiously rehearses lines before a scene with Clark Gable. In a rare moment – in which Monroe is unaware of the camera – we see the real Norma Jean; battling with her demons and struggling to live up to expectations. As Eve left, she was approached by a gaggle of reporters, asking what it was like to photograph Marilyn.

Being a woman helped me to understand her moods and responses,’ Eve said. ‘Also, my being another woman avoided the male-female byplay that my male colleagues tell me is necessary in their sessions to produce intimate pictures.” Probably Arnold's best-known work is her photography of film star Marilyn Monroe, published in book form in 1987 and revised and reissued in 2005. Six sessions took place over a 10-year period, the shortest two hours and the longest two months, when Arnold saw her daily during filming of The Misfits. Trust and respect were established, and the result is a portfolio shot through with affection and concern, showing Monroe with her foibles and problems but also with humour, warmth and humanity. 'I never knew anyone who even came close to Marilyn in natural ability to use both photographer and still camera', said Arnold. 'She knew what to do. She would impose her psychic needs, her moods, her eroticism upon the session, working rapidly so that expression after fleeting expression wafted across her face, her body moving sinuously in cadence so the photographer could only try to keep up.... If I felt she was flagging and it was necessary, I would say what was wanted and she would swing into action. Mainly what was wanted was for her just to be herself.' Every Christmas when I was growing up, Eve would bring caviar and blini. It was an old Russian tradition and I can see now that Eve never got to eat like this when she was a kid. Her parents were poor so to see her family eating caviar at Christmas was something she never thought she’d experience. Nonetheless, Marilyn arranged a photo-shoot with Eve at her home later that day. It was a favour to Kenneth Battelle, ‘hairdresser to the stars’, who was to be featured in ‘Good Housekeeping’ magazine. Our ‘quid pro quo’ relationship, based on mutual advantage, developed into a friendship,” Eve wrote. “The bond between us was photography. She liked my pictures and was canny enough to realise that they were a fresh approach for presenting her – a looser, more intimate look than the posed studio portraits she was used to in Hollywood.”

Eve had her first experience of working with a movie star when she photographed Marlene Dietrich during a recording session, for ‘Esquire’, the upmarket men’s magazine. Some time later, Eve met Marilyn at a party given by John Huston at Manhattan’s 21 Club. “Marilyn asked – with that mixture of naïveté and self-promotion that was uniquely hers – ‘If you could do that well with Marlene, can you imagine what you could do with me?’” Arnold has recalled. Eve Arnold began photographing Marilyn Monroe after the actress saw her pictures of Marlene Dietrich in Esquire. They met at a party and Monroe asked: “If you could do that well with Marlene, can you imagine what you can do with me?” So began their professional relationship, which, over the years, turned into friendship. Arnold photographed Monroe six times over the decade she knew her; the longest of these sessions being a two-month stint during the filming of The Misfits. In February 1956, Lois Smith – Marilyn’s New York publicist – invited Eve to a press conference at the Plaza Hotel. Marilyn was to announce her latest film project, ‘The Sleeping Prince’. Her co-star, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Sir Terence Rattigan, author of the original script, had flown in from London to meet her.Though Marilyn denied it, Eve believed the ‘accident’ was, in fact, deliberate. “Suddenly the atmosphere changed,” she wrote. “(Monroe) had made it fun: It's the hardest thing in the world to take the mundane and try to show how special it is." - Eve Arnold Eve Arnold's People, edited by Brigitte Lardinois with texts by Huston and Isabella Rossellini, London: Thames & Hudson, 2009

Marilyn was deeply upset by Gable’s death. She had idolised him as a child, and throughout the ordeal of ‘The Misfits’, he treated her with kindness and respect. Monroe also recommended Eve to Gable, and she was the only photographer to record the filming of their bedroom scene. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Arnold worked frequently on stories for the ‘Sunday Times’ colour supplement. Eve’s editor, Harold Evans, agreed that her time on any project should not exceed six months per year, so that she could spend time with her son.For Marilyn, Arnold believed, “Being photographed was being caressed and appreciated in a very safe way. She had loved the day and kept repeating that these were the best circumstances under which she had ever worked.” She looked fresh and rested, and she and Kenneth played up for the camera, she teasing him about his showing the more photogenic side of his face,” Eve observed. “We did just one roll of film. It was a simple photo and I did not want to tire her.” 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.” 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. What’s more, the issues she photographed - racial equality, religion, sexuality, human rights, abuse of power, fame and personality couldn’t me more relevant to today’s world. By understanding our past, current events can be seen clearly in context.



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