Eve Arnold: Magnum Legacy

This laudatory biography of photojournalist Eve Arnold draws on the artist's diaries and letters to chart the interplay between her private life and her public work. Arnold was a major force in Magnum Photos, a cooperative of international photographers that has counted many influential photojournalists among its members over the past 70 years. Joining the organization in 1951 (the first woman to do so), Arnold slowly rose to fame, finding recognition both for her intimate portraits of celebrities such as Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe and for her work documenting social issues, including a series on Malcolm X and another on the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee. These images are strikingly reproduced, as are selections from Arnold's decades of international travels, particularly in Russia, China, and Afghanistan. Biographical details are used mainly to enrich the understanding of the photographic impulse, with Arnold's interpersonal relationships and sense of home serving as recurrent themes. The volume, the first in a series of Magnum photographer biographies, serves primarily to celebrate and extend the entwined legacies of Arnold and Magnum Photos, with the text reading as an accessible profile piece more often than a critical assessment. Agent: David Forrer, Inkwell Management. (Apr.)