MARILYN

Marilyn by Eve Arnold 

Following on from the pictures of MM with Arthur Miller I have been wanting to post this picture for a while and say something about it. It is by Eve Arnold who I met at the time of a talk she gave for us at Blackwell's Book Shop where I gave her a window display for her then latest book but she gave me prints of Marilyn for display that she hadn't printed in colour before and I was somewhat in awe of her. She was quite the most lovely dignified woman artist I have met and she was allowed to go into 'Gaffer's room'  in the main shop where the Blackwell family kept the most wonderful room exactly as if the gaffer Blackwell who started the shop had just stepped out. William Morris wallpaper etc. 

I love this picture of Marlyn and it tells me, I believe, that Marilyn suffered badly from her monthly cycle and I believe Eve is showing us that side of her subject. I may be wrong but the more I look at it the more I am convinced I am right. I don't think she has gone on record to say so but it is what I believe.  She was trusted by Marilyn more than almost any other photographer. Arnold was able to take the most revealing and candid of shots, with her skirts hitched up or holding her tummy as in here, tired and possibly suffering cramps. I think this is one of the most feminine pictures taken by a woman of a woman it has been my privilege to witness. Marilyn liked other women and whilst many actresses expected the edge and bitchiness, jealousy and competitiveness of starlets they were used to, they were more often than not shocked by her camaraderie and affection, glad to find things otherwise to what they had all come to expect, and she shared an intimacy and a sisterhood that belied her time and place in history.