Publisher's Description
In April 2012 Eve Arnold, who died earlier this year, would have turned one hundred. As a tribute to the grande dame of photojournalism, Schirmer/Mosel are publishing the book Eve Arnold: Homage featuring her legendary portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Isabella Rossellini, and other silverscreen celebrities, not to mention stars from the world of politics – alongside her world-famous photojournalism and travel photographs of Afghanistan, China and India.
Born in 1912 as one of nine children to a family of Russian emigrants, Eve Arnold’s amazing career began in the late 1940s in New York when she was given a Rolleicord camera, the inexpensive version of a Rolleiflex. Arnold was working in a photo lab at the time and attended photography courses. In 1951 she was hired as the first female photographer to work for the later legendary photo agency Magnum. Founded in 1947 in Paris by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and David Seymour the independent agency pursuing humanistic aims was and still is a male domain. Even today the agency has merely ten women amongst the 82 photographers it represents. With regard to photographic themes, Eve Arnold demonstrated extraordinary audacity: showing great social commitment she devoted herself to explosive social topics such as fashion shows in Black Harlem and immersed herself in totally alien worlds in the Communist Soviet Union, in China or in various Muslim nations.
Our richly-illustrated monograph captures the essence of Arnold’s oeuvre spanning half a century. British journalist Gina Thomas wrote the introduction in which she aptly characterizes Eve Arnold’s special talent to gain people’s trust – famous or not: “Her gaze was penetrating but not relentless, keen but never intrusive, and sensitive without being fawning.” Alongside parting words from two Magnum colleagues the book also contains personal comments by the photographer for every chapter. “Keeping the freshness of the images” was the goal she set herself, and a constant challenge. The fact that she succeeded in doing this is emphatically borne out by our publication featuring Arnold’s varied oeuvre colored by a strong humane view.
Publisher: Schirmer/Mosel
Size: 230 x 290 mm
184 pages, 120 colour and duotone plates.