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Overview
Here is Eve Arnold - the distillation, in words and pictures, of her life and her lifework. Her story challenges many of our casually held notions about photography, photographers and the careers of women in the second half of our century, and presents us with a set of happy contradictions. For Eve Arnold managed to become and remain one of the world's leading photographers without ever succumbing to trendiness or self-aggrandizement; she rapidly reached an extraordinary level of professionalism and achievement with almost no formal training; she succeeded as an American in England and as a woman in a (mostly) man's world; she grounded herself emotionally as a mother and grandmother while working nonstop around the world; she proved herself a master of both black-and-white and color; she became both an ardent social critic - of McCarthyism, apartheid, poverty - and a mirror of glamour and highlife, photographing Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford, presidents, prime ministers, royals; and she has faced us - and herself - with our own country in all its complex and disturbing particularities, as well as taking us on searching and exotic explorations of Afghanistan, China, Russia and the Arab Emirates (inside a harem). Despite her modesty and lack of experience, Eve Arnold's talent and potential were quickly noticed. In the only photography class she ever took - she was an absolute beginner - the legendary art director Alexei Brodovitch singled her out for praise and encouragement. Soon she was the first American woman to be accepted by Magnum Photos, the prestigious international cooperative of photographers; she became a star photographer for both Life magazine in its period of splendor and the Sunday Times Colour Magazine (London) when it was a fresh and innovative (and admired) playground for writers and photographers.During the 40 years of her photojournalistic career, Eve Arnold has found subjects in political figures, heads of state, movie stars, religious leaders, painters, musicians, and dancers. This detailed biography provides Eve's own account of her life-long adventure and her continuing, far-ranging search for images that express our time. 95 photos, 45 in color.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
An early member of the prestigious postwar cooperative Magnum Photos, Arnold (The Unretouched Woman), for much of a half-century career in photojournalism, arranged her own assignments. For Life, London's Sunday Colour and other top magazines worldwide, she covered screen stars Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe;a colony of centenarians in Georgia, U.S.S.R.; Vatican City, body and soul; and a Dubai wedding featuring a camel race-to name but a few. She did photo-profiles of Indira Gandhi, Mamie Eisenhower, Mikhail Baryshnikov and British PM John Major; publicity stills for The Misfits and several other John Huston films; a number of advertising spreads; and eight text-and-picture books. In an engaging mixture of pride, self-deprecation, personal sentiment and philosophical reflection (``photography flourishes on the absolute''), she here gives a top practitioner's clear and authoritative (if often overly detailed) account of 20th-century photojournalism, now deteriorating, she fears, into ``glitz and packaging.'' Photos. (Nov.)Library Journal
More than a memoir of a well-known photographer, this is a first person history of photojournalism in the 20th century. The opening chapters cover the fertile and formative years of Magnum. As its second woman member, Arnold offers an insider's view of the renowned photography agency with Robert Capa at the helm. Her early images-a conversation between Senator Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn, Eisenhower being surprised by the press right after receiving the presidential nomination-exhibit a sense of timing, curiosity, and technical skill that have produced long-lived, often prophetic images. By mid-career she had mastered a rapport with her subjects that allowed her unique access to the off-camera faces of such famous actresses as Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe, a "Hollywood legend who runs like a thread" through Arnold's work of the 1950s. The 95 images combine with her articulate and entertaining observations on both her subjects and the process of photography make for a visual and narrative treat that will appeal to a broad audience. For most photography collections.-Kathy J. Anderson, Indiana Ctr. for Global Business, Indiana Univ., BloomingtonBook Details
Published
November 1, 1995
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Pages
292
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780394578507