Unit 57: Photography and Photographic

Practice Research of other

photographers work by Ashleigh Darlington

Eve Arnold is an American born photographer, she was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 21, 1912. She first found that she was interested in photography when she began working in a New York City photo finishing plant in 1946. During 1948 she learnt photographic skills from Harper’s Bazaar art director, Alexy Brodovitch, at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan. Eve Arnold was known for photographing many iconic figures and she also documented the lives of the poor and dispossessed. During the early 1980s Arnold had her first solo exhibition. This featured her work done in China at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. In the same year she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers. In 1993 she was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and she was also elected Master Photographer by New York’s International Centre of Photography. In 1997, she was appointed a member of the Advisory Committee of the National Media Museum in Bradford and in 2003 Eve Arnold received an OBE. She died in January 2013, aged 99.

I like Eve Arnolds work because I think she managed to capture the natural look of people rather than the stiff posed side people were used to seeing. I prefer black and white photography be cause I think that it lets you look a person closer as you aren't distracted by background ‘noise’ and you can see properly the expressions and what else is happening in the images.

Eve Arnold most well known photographs are probably those of Marilyn Monroe, she photographed her many times, there first meeting was on the set of Misfits from the 1960s. Arnold always photograph Monroe looking quite relaxed, rather than stiffly posed. On this photograph you can see a slight blur on the hand holding her pigtail, this suggest that Monroe wont of been asked to be stiff while she was being photographed. Eve Arnold has stated that she wanted her photography to look more personal and that a close relationship was sometimes needed for this to be achieved, on the set of The Misfits Arnold was the only photographers let into Marilyn's ‘inner circle’, this lead to them doing other photo-shoots after the end of filming. With a lot of Arnolds photographs the subjects are in a position with either background or centred with not much background and the focus on them, I think that as Eve photographed a lot of iconic people that for her to be to be valued as a photographer she would have to do this with her images, I think she achieved great results with all of her images and I also think that the closeness of her relationship with Monroe helped a great deal in achieving natural personal looking photos.

This photograph was taken in Long Island, New York 1955. Eve states that this photo was taken while she was setting up her equipment ready for a shoot, Monroe took out a book to read while she was waiting. Marilyn is slightly centred on the image, although the image looks more to the left as Arnold has taken it from a slight angle. I think this image works well as the lines from her top and the lines from the bars of the frame all fit in together, also the way that her legs are positions fits in with the lines of the bars and the top she is wearing. The colouring of this image works well also as the bars are slightly faded and the ground and the tress don’t jump out at you, this brings more attention to the subject of the photograph as her clothing and skin is brighter and eye catching than the rest of the image. This image could be an example of rule of thirds as Monroe is centred and has the bars on one side and the ground on threes on another.