‘It has often been said that Marilyn Monroe made love to the camera, but what is most evident about this series of photographs is the confidence and relaxation she exudes in her collaboration with the photographer,’ says Anjelica Huston in the foreword to Marilyn Monroe by Eve Arnold, a new photography book featuring previously unseen images of Monroe.
Intimate and unexpected, the photographs here are the result of the close relationship American photojournalist Eve Arnold developed with the star, formed after a meeting at a party. Monroe had seen recent images Arnold had taken of Marlene Dietrich, distinctive for their documentary style at odds with the more typical, well-lit professional headshots of the time.
Monroe, on the cusp of stardom, recognised the approach as fresh, and full of potential. In her introduction to the book, Arnold says Monroe asked: ‘If you could do that well with Marlene, can you imagine what you can do with me?’
It was the beginning of a relationship that turned to a friendship, with Arnold photographing Monroe six times over a decade, including every day during the filming of The Misfits. The resulting works capture a more relaxed Monroe, reading, doing her make-up, stranded by flight delays or dancing with her husband, Arthur Miller, on a film set.
Following Monroe from the early days of her career, in curating and crafting her image, to filming throughout the 1950s and time spent in Los Angeles in the early 1960s, the book traces Monroe’s journey. Images are accompanied by a detailed biography from Arnold, offering an insight into Monroe’s often fragile state of mind. ‘Over the years, I found myself in the privileged position of photographing someone who I had first thought had a gift for the still camera and who turned out to have a genius for it,’ Arnold adds.
‘Marilyn Monroe by Eve Arnold' is published by ACC Art Books and available from amazon.co.uk
