Eve Arnold's People

This new collection features her exceptional photographs of people, both famous and unknown, captured in formal and informal settings. In addition to Arnold’s superb individual portraits of Monroe, Dietrich, Gable, Crawford, and more, there are a number of Photo Stories: visual essays made on assignment, including Malcolm X and the Black Muslims; her seminal work In China; and more.

The work is organized into three key periods: 1948-60, her early career, and becoming the first woman member of Magnum; 1961-70, when she moved to the UK and began working with color film; 1971-97, with assignments in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and beyond.

Eve Arnold (b. 1912 in Philadelphia) is one of the great photographers of the modern era.

Library Journal

Photojournalist Eve Arnold was the first female member of the Magnum cooperative, founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa after World War II. Although she is best known for the many empathic photos she took of Marilyn Monroe (her collection Marilyn Monroe was published in 2005), Lardinois (ed., Magnum Magnum) does a surpassingly good job of depicting Arnold's sweeping career and vision. Born in Philadelphia, Arnold spent decades in London beginning in 1961, and much of her expansive accomplishment was expressed through her association with the Sunday Times. Perceptive and self-effacing, this diminutive woman inconspicuously inserted herself into a wide range of contexts; this collection, created with Arnold's involvement and featuring texts by Anjelica Huston, Isabella Rossellini, and others, depicts Malcolm X and his movement, pre-Tiananmen China, 1960s Afghanistan, and film stars of multiple eras (e.g., Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, and Paul Newman). Unfairly obscure in reputation, Arnold deserves the thoroughgoing treatment she receives in this pictorial tribute. VERDICT An excellent source of inspiration and entertainment for anyone who fancies classic Hollywood celebrities or documentary photography.—Douglas F. Smith, Berkeley P.L., CA

Brigitte Lardinois was Cultural Director at Magnum Photos London for more than ten years and is the editor of Magnum Magnum. She lives in London.