Photographing Hollywood Icons

Magnum photographers have, over the decades, photographed many icons of cinema. From Philippe Halsman’s famed and carefully constructed ‘Jumpology’ series, to Eve Arnold’s naturalistic ‘portrait-in-action’ approach to revealing a less polished Marilyn Monroe – the approaches have been as varied as the subjects. Here we reflect on six remarkable Hollywood series’. 

Joan Crawford by Eve Arnold

Eve Arnold’s personal diary provided an astonishingly frank insight into the working relationship the pair developed over the course of several assignments in the 1950s.

“You want to go as deeply into them as people as you can. But usually what happens, if you’re careful with people and if you respect their privacy, they will offer part of themselves that you can use and that is the big secret,” said Eve Arnold, whose uninstructive approach made her a favorite among the many movie stars who she photographed, who would not only offer Arnold part of themselves, but also divulge some secrets of their own. One such subject was Joan Crawford, one of the last great stars of Hollywood’s golden age, whose reputation as a dramatic and hot-headed personality is the stuff of legend.

In a story for LIFE Magazine, which was supposed to show Crawford at home, Arnold wrote: “We discussed the story line – she wanted to show her fans how dedicated she had been to hang on to the top of the cliff of success for thirty years. We started off with nothing off-limits and wound up after eight weeks the same way. In fact, so inventive was Joan (she would simply dream up situations and go ahead, waiting for the camera to follow after) that we could have filled an encyclopedia instead of the twelve pages at our disposal.”

“Weekends we would spend at her house in Bel-Air photographing. Those would be her days for having her nails done, her hair colored, her legs waxed, her eyebrows dyed; all of which she wanted me to record on film, to show her devotion to her public. In the mornings she would come down the stairs slowly, pause midway at the niche in the stairwell where the spotlighted Oscar she had won for Mildred Pierce was housed, genuflect and continue to the bottom. Only then could the day’s work begin.”

Read more about Eve Arnolds photographs of Joan Crawford here.

Jane Fonda by David Hurn

David Hurn first met Jane Fona on the set of the 1968 film Barbarella, which was being directed by her then husband, the French director Rodger Vadim. He developed a rapport with Fonda, and went on to photograph intimate family moments at home. He was reunited with the actress for a BBC documentary about his work in 2017. 

“I suppose it’s their business to look good,” he said, empathizing with actors’ plight, but added, “What to me is slightly amusing, is that I am not absolutely convinced that they know what the best pictures of themselves are.” Hurn came across a classic case of this during his first interactions with Jane Fonda on Barbarella’s Italian set.

Hurn arrived on the production at the request of his friend Tom Carlie, who was the publicist on the film. As per the agreement, Hurn would show Fonda his contact sheets and she would mark off which images she was vetoing. “Bless her,” says Hurn, “she is a great actress but not the best editor of her own pictures. I had learned you do not argue with these people, so I simply put the contacts away, kept them for a week or so, and shot some more pictures.”

Marilyn Monroe by Eve Arnold 

In a text from 1978 reflecting on her work from the 1950s, Eve Arnold admits she found “portraiture perhaps the most difficult part of photography.” To prevent the standard “mug shot” and to get at what she found most interesting about the person – that which lay beneath the surface – she experimented with what she called a “portrait-in-action,” where “the subject is absorbed in some activity or is shown against a background that interests [her].”  She tried to do this with Marilyn Monroe, for instance photographing her resting on her bed eating grapes, reading James Joyce’s Ulysses in her bathing suit on a playground, or behind the scenes on the set of The Misfits in the Nevada desert with Clark Gable and Arthur Miller.

She writes of Marilyn that “posing was a game she played with abandon and delight, drawing the other player, the photographer, into it with a silent but ever increasing psychic pressure.” Candid shots were impossible with Marilyn, who, even when relaxed, would sense the camera lens on her and move into position. Though the photographer concedes it might have been more efficient to be prescriptive in her commands, the intuitive approach to shooting which bound photographer and subject are what, in Arnold’s opinion, resulted in a surprising image.

The portraits of Marilyn demonstrate Arnold’s dictum that “photographs are not made in a vacuum: the person before the lens is inseparable from the process.”  In her shooting sessions with the actress, she writes of Marilyn that “no word would be spoken, but she had made the connection, a tenuous thread that the photographer grasped, an umbilical cord that was sensitive, silent and tough.”

James Dean by Dennis Stock

Dennis Stock met James Dean in Hollywood in January 1955 and, intrigued, began to photograph him. Following him on a visit to his birthplace in Fairmount, Indiana, to New York City, and back to Hollywood, Stock recorded unforgettable images of the young actor in both his professional and private worlds. Stock’s photographs of Dean capture the spirit and humour of a talented man who represented the youth, awareness, and vitality of a generation. 

Speaking of the iconic image of Dean taken by Stock in Times Square, Stock’s widow, Susan Richards, said: “James Dean wasn’t a star when this image was taken. It was days before his breakthrough film came out. He had a passion, but no idea what, if anything, would come of it. He certainly did not know stardom was about to hit. Things weren’t looking bright at the moment; it was a rainy, gloomy day. He was a small, lonely, nobody, on his own journey, walking through Times Square, with big buildings in the background brooding over him. Dennis called him, ‘every man.’ He would say, ‘He’s all of us, wondering what the hell the future will hold.’”

Whether photographing Hollywood celebrities or immigrants newly arrived in New York, Stock had a remarkable ability to capture the essence of the American experience. In his own words, “the heartbeat of good photography is discovery”.

Ingrid Bergman by David Seymour

David “Chim” Seymour’s creative relationship with Ingrid Bergman began through his friend, Robert Capa, who had had a brief affair with the Hollywood star. Chim was sent by Capa to photograph Bergman following the controversial birth of her first child with Roberto Rossellini whilst the actress was still married to her first husband Petter Aron Lindström, sensing that she was in need of a sympathetic, discreet photographer. 

Bergman became Chim’s “favourite subject”. He was invited to photograph her on set —during the filming of Europa 51, Elena et Les Hommes, Anastacia and rehearsals of Joan of Arc at the Stake—as well as en famille. After he photographed her at the Rossellini family home in Santa Marinella, following the birth of her twins, Isabella and Isotta, she wrote an emphatic letter which began: “Dear Chim, You are a marvelous photographer and I am a marvelous baby maker!” As was his way, he worked quietly and respectfully and the pair remained friends. 

Chim’s self-effacing manner masked the profound trust and affection in all who came to know him. His sense of humor and ability to listen helped in the creation of portraits that went beyond the usual “glamour shots”, instead conveying an air of intimacy.