Photographing the stars

We just got back from London where Steven insisted we needed a few more books, you know, because our house hasn't got enough stuff in it already and there is still a corridoor of space between the living room and the door... He laid them all out on the table for me to see when we got in.


In amongst them is a book on Eve Arnold that I was reading last night. Arnold was a Magnum photographer famous for her images of Marilyn Monroe back in the early 60s, and photographed a variety of stars in a documentary fashion on their film sets. Its fascinating to read how Arnold gained people's trust and managed to capture moments that many others would not have. She is quoted as saying, "If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument." Here are a few snippets I found interesting:

Marlene Dietrich demanded that her negatives be altered to make her appear thinner and more attractive, (1950s photoshop - they altered photographs back then too of course) but taking a risk, Arnold ignored her and printed them using her own techniques because she thought the original photographs were beautiful enough. Dietrich loved them.

A drunken Joan Crawford demanded to be photographed naked, and since Arnold was nervous, she accidentally loaded colour film into her camera that she would be unable to process herself. Panicking afterwards since she couldn't hand the film over to a lab, she spent the whole night learning colour processing. The day after, Crawford wanted to see the images and Arnold had managed to develop them without ruining any.

Actress Anne Bancroft hated being photographed since she had always thought of herself as ugly (I think there is only a minority of the population that doesn't apply to actually). She only sat still for Arnold to photograph her on set because she thought she looked "so small and lost" carrying such a little camera. Afterwards Bancroft saw the images and gasped, 'I am beautiful!'

Its interesting to learn about how photographers this successful gain the trust of the people they are photographing, because once you know how to use your camera, all thats left to distiguish you from everyone else is how you get the best from your subjects.

Here is Eve Arnold's Magnum webpage: http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R14AZX1&nm=Eve%20Arnold