Eve Arnold Marlene Dietrich at the recording studios of Columbia Records. New York, USA. 1952.
“A lot of Eve's work was about making the unseen, visible. Getting to the person behind the persona or the hidde
(...) n story behind the headlines. A lot of celebrity photography at the time (and still these days) was done under studio lights or in a contrived scenario. Eve recognised that if she gained their trust, people would allow her to photograph them while they went about their day. In this way the celebrity got to show more of their personality and the photographer captured images that were real and intimate. Eve's photographs of Marlene Dietrich in the recording studio are a great example of this.
Eve wrote about this session in Eve Arnold: In Retrospect (Random House, 1995):
‘She worked diligently, ‘like a ditch digger,’ said my notes, from midnight when she arrived until six in the morning. I followed her from rehearsal to recording to playback and back again as she worked, and nothing was questioned or off-limits.’”
- Michael Arnold, grandson of Eve Arnold © Eve Arnold | Magnum Photos