or more than 50
years, Marilyn
Stafford has
made Britain
her home,
but even
before she
came to these
shores, it was
her chance
meetings with
some of the most
famous people of the
20th century – and legendary
Magnum photographers – in
post-War Paris that set her upon a
life in photography. Marilyn is 94, but
she is not one for dwelling on an
eventful past that would be the envy
of many other photographers.
Instead, she is making plans for next
year, including an exhibition of her
street and fashion photos next
spring, and presenting the award in
her name honouring female
documentary photographers.
Throughout our conversation, there
is a lucidity of thought and clarity in
the memories she shares that rollsback the years with the sureness
of a camera shutter at 1/250 sec.
Brought up as an actress in Ohio,
Marilyn moved to New York after the
end of World War II to find work in the
theatre. But her intended career path
took a major diversion after she
made friends with a pair of film-
makers who were planning to film
the famous physicist, Albert Einstein,
speaking out against the use of
atomic weapons. Unexpectedly,
Marilyn was given a camera and told
she was the stills photographer for
the day. It was her first assignment.
“It was on this shoot that I was
taught how to use a camera to
capture the stills,” she recalls.
Marilyn is the first to admit that she
has been lucky with the people she
has met over the years, but it was
that day with Einstein that remains
arguably the most significant.When you met Einstein, it was your
first shoot and you were using a
camera you hadn’t used before.
Surely, he must have detected
that you were a bit nervous?Well, I’m not sure he was mindful of
me. As I remember it, we got to his
house, he answered the door and
was dressed very casually, as you
can see in the photograph. There
were just three of us: the director and
the producer and me. It was the first
time I had used a 35mm reflex
camera – I had always used the Rollei- so my concentration was mainly on
‘get the shot!’ I remember very
clearly that he walked us into his big
lounge and they set up where he was
going to sit and where they were
going to shoot. I then remember he
was speaking with the director while
the producer was setting up the
lights and I was standing, somewhat
removed from it all, focusing.
They were shooting on 16mm film
and Einstein asked the director
something particular about how
many feet per second the film went
through the camera. The director
explained this to him and he nodded
after briefly reflecting and said,
“Thank you very much, now I
understand,” which floored me.
It was a very quiet conversation,
but the interesting thing was that he
was extremely adamant about
making the statement that he did not
believe in the use of atomic bombs.
The people making the film were
hoping that he would do that.
This was just a few years after
Hiroshima and Nagasaki – this was
1948 and he was, I think, pretty
shattered about it.
Even disillusioned, perhaps?
Oh, I’m sure, although I cannot speak
for him, but I think on the record he
had made many statements. He
went on to speak quite publicly and
took very strong positions against
atomic warfare.
I didn’t think about photography
as a career until much later when
visiting a friend in Paris and I decided
to stay there. By chance, I met Henri
Cartier-Bresson. That was the realF
Previous page:
Boulogne-
Billancourt, Paris- When Marilyn
first came to Paris,
she would get onto
a bus each day and
travel to the end of
the line to take
pictures. One day,
the bus took her
to Boulogne-
Billancourt, a Paris
suburb, at that
time home of the
Renault car factory
and of working-
class people, where
she wandered
taking shots.
Below: Albert
Einstein 1948.
Taken during
Marilyn’s first
shoot when she
was an assistant.
She bypassed all
nerves and instead
focused on ‘getting
the shot’, which
paid dividends
with this warm
and personable
portrait.
I came to England
around the mid 1960s.
The ‘Swinging Sixties’,
that was a culture shock!
Everything was changing
THE N-PHOTO INTERVIEW