This spring, the Kunstfoyer pays homage to the grand dame of photography with a retrospective that is also Eve Arnold’s first exhibition in Germany. On view will be her photo essays, including New York by Night, Harlem Fashion Shows (1950), the First Five Minutes of a Baby’s Life, Voodoo in Haiti, Malcolm X, Vogue Fashion Shows (1977), her travel journals from Afghanistan (late sixties), China, and India (1980) as well as her legendary star portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Isabella Rossellini, Clark Gable, Peter O’Toole and Anthony Quinn. She grew especially close to Marilyn Monroe, whom she accompanied and photographed over a period of ten years.

The daughter of Russian immigrants, Eve Arnold (1912–2012) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She took her first photographs in 1946 while working in a photo-finishing plant in New York. She began studying photography under Alexei Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research in 1948. She became affiliated with Magnum Photos in 1951 and became a full member in 1957. She lived in the US during the fifties and moved to England in 1962 so that her son could attend school there. From that point on, she lived and worked in England – with the exception of six years spent working in the US and China. In 1980 Arnold’s first solo exhibition was held at the Brooklyn Museum, which showed the images taken during her stay in China. That same year, Eve Arnold received the National Book Award for her book In China. She also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers in 1980. She was made a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1995 and also received the world’s most prestigious photographic honor when she was elected Master Photographer by the International Center of Photography in New York (ICP). Arnold received the Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for In Retrospect in 1996. She was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of St. Andrews (Staffordshire) and the American International University in London the following year. In addition, she was also selected as a member advisory committee of the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford. Eve Arnold passed away on 4 January 2012 at the age of 99.

Exhibition catalog published by Schirmer/Mosel

Eve Arnold. Hommage
Edited by Isabel Siben and Andrea Holzherr
184 pages, 120 images (54 in color and 66 in duotone)
Format: 23 x 29 cm, hardcover
ISBN 978-3-8296-0601-1 [German/English]

Curator

Isabel Siben