USA. Marilyn Monroe during the filming of 'The Misfits'. 1960.
© Eve Arnold for AP
“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.”
American-born, Eve Arnold, became Magnum's first female full-member in 1957, after a close association with the group from 1951. A prolific photojournalist, she went on to gain a number of highly regarded awards & honorary degrees and, having moved to England in the early 60's, was awarded the Order of the British Empire, UK in 2003. She died in 2012 at the grand age of 99.
ENGLAND. 1968. Cheshire. The Queen on tour.
Arnold worked globally - including US, England, Cuba, Dubai, Afghanistan, Haiti, South Africa - but her time in China was particularly successful, leading to her first solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1980 and to being awarded the National Book Award for 'In China'. In the same year she also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers.
HAITI. 1954. The American drug companies tested Milltown, an early tranquiliser experiment at this asylum.
USA. 1958. Virginia. Black and white children at a party to introduce mixed schools.
CUBA. 1954. Havana. Bar girl in a brothel in the red light district.
After a catalogue of honours and awards, in 1995 she was made a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and Master Photographer by New York's Centre of Photography - the worlds most prestigious photographic honour.
Known for her iconic images of the brightest stars of the time including Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, Eve was equally at home photographing the poor and displaced among society.
CHINA. 1979. Retired woman.
AFGHANISTAN. 1969. Nomad wedding in the Hindu Kush.
USA. 1982. Texas. Sugarland. Prisoners.
"I don't see anybody as either ordinary or extraordinary," she told the BBC in 1990, "I see them simply as people in front of my lens.”
She was arguably most famous for her images of Marilyn Monroe (notably on the set of The Misfits but also throughout Marilyn's all-too-short career), and of Malcom X, having followed him and the Nation of Islam across American for a year in 1961.
USA. 1955. New York. Long Island. Marilyn Monroe.
USA. 1960. Marilyn Monroe on the Nevada desert during the filming of "The Misfits".
USA. 1960. Marilyn Monroe during the filming of 'The Misfits'.
USA. 1961. Chicago. Malcolm X.
All photos courtesy of Magnum Photos: Eve Arnold at Magnum.
See more Eve Arnold images on our 'Women of Magnum' Pinterest board.
Visit our Portraits Collection at 100 Prints.