Eve Arnold- artist

So I have to play catch-up with my artist blogs because I have been crazy busy and haven't had time to sit down and blog. This post is about Eve Arnold:

Eve Arnold was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Russian immigrant parents. She began photographing in 1946, while working at a photo-finishing plant in New York City, and then studied photography in 1948 with Alexei Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research in New York. Arnold was the first woman to be nominated for membership in Magnum in 1951, and became a full member in 1957.  She was based in the US during the 1950s but went to England in 1962 to put her son through school; except for a six-year interval when she worked in the US and China, she lived in the UK for the rest of her life.

Her time in China led to her first major solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1980. In the same year, she received the National Book Award for In China and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers. In 1995 she was made fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and elected Master Photographer - the world's most prestigious photographic honour - by New York's International Center of Photography. In 1996 she received the Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for In Retrospect, and the following year she was granted honorary degrees by the University of St Andrews, Staffordshire University, and the American International University in London; she was also appointed to the advisory committee of the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford, UK. She has had twelve books published.

Eve passed away in January of 2012.

Eve Arnold is known for her celebrity photographs, and perhaps most known for her photos of Marilyn Monroe.  Arnold’s photographs of Marilyn aren't like others of her I have seen (which honestly isn't a lot because I'm not really interested).  Arnold's photos of Marilyn Monroe expose the icon’s personality rather than her flesh, most of the time.  I read that while many dismiss Marilyn’s intelligence, Eve didn’t.  Both women knew what effect being a woman had on the world around her, and as Eve says, “We could make use of it, or we could let it be.” Eve never liked to be a called a woman photographer, just a photographer (you wouldn't say man photographer).

I found the following quote given by a fan of Marilyn Monroe and the work done by Eve Arnold, Deanna Dahlsad "If the mark of a really good novel is that you think of the characters long after the book ends, then photographs of people ought to do the same. Eve Arnold’s photos do that.  Even if you think you know the people in the portraits.

And when you don’t know the people in the photographs?  You long to…"

I like the photos of Monroe, but its the work Arnold did in China that I really enjoyed. They are simple images of life and I feel they are very honest and true representations. There isn't anything tragic or glorious, she took pictures of life as she saw it (from what I can tell). Its the angle and framing that Arnold chose that makes the images appealing to me. They feel natural and real and I love that. This one is one my favorites, can't really say why, but maybe its the expression on the priest, or the guy behind him hiding his face (a lot to be interpreted about why and if it was intentional), or maybe its the light coming in through the window....

I didn't find a site created strictly for Eve Arnold, but there is a lot out there if you just google her name (she has a lot of fans) I kind of wish I had chosen Arnold for my homage project!