Photographer Eve Arnold has shot presidents, prime ministers, movie stars, the Queen and Malcolm X. In 1951 Eve Arnold became the first female photographer to join Magnum Photos, a photographic co-operative of great diversity and distinction owned by its photographer members. With powerful individual vision, Magnum photographers chronicle the world and interpret its people, events, issues and personalities. She was based in America during the 1950s and went to England in 1962, where she has lived ever since when not travelling for work.

She has received numerous awards and honours, including the National Book Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers, the Kranzna-Krausz Book Award, and an honorary O.B.E by the British Government. She was also made a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and was elected ‘Master Photographer’ by New York’s International Centre of Photography. In April 2010 she was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sony World Photography Awards, just one day after her 98th birthday.

In 1952, following a photoshoot for Esquire magazine, Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold forged a friendship. Eve is the only woman to have photographed Marilyn Monroe extensively. Many photographers portray Marilyn’s sexuality, whereas Eve has captured some of the most tender images ever seen of this Hollywood starlet. Marilyn was an enigma who was famous, beautiful, sexy, talented and intelligent.

She also exemplified unexpected characteristics of sadness, loneliness and vulnerability that made her all the more human. Marilyn has one of the most recognised faces in the world, and nearly fifty years after her death, she is still a household name. Eve Arnold’s captivating photographs bring an acute and perceptive vision to the life of Marilyn Monroe.

A brief history of Magnum Photos

Two years after the Second World War ended Magnum Photos was founded. It was formed by four photographers - Robert Capa, Henri Cartier- Bresson, George Rodger, and David ‘Chim’ Seymour - who had been very much scarred by that conflict and were motivated both by a sense of relief that the world had somehow survived and the curiosity to see what was still there. They created Magnum in 1947 to reflect their independent natures as people and photographers; the idiosyncratic mix of reporter and artist that continues to define Magnum, emphasising not only what is seen but also the way one sees it. Through its four editorial offices in New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, and a network of fifteen sub agents, Magnum Photos provides photographs to the press, publishers, advertising, television, galleries and museums across the world and is recognized as the world’s most prestigious photographic agency today.

© Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos