FLEET STREET STRUGGLES
WHEN MARILYN ARRIVED IN LONDON IN THE ’60S, SHE WAS
ONE OF A HANDFUL OF FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS TRYING TO
SUCCEED ON THE MALE-DOMINATED FLEET STREET PAPERS...How many women photographers were there?
About a dozen women at the time, but few worked on news, most on features,
so out of necessity I moved into fashion. I was lucky to have met many people
and I worked with big newspapers and magazines, so the work was diversified.
I was also able to get work as a stills photographer in cinema and TV.What were some of the film and TV productions you worked on?
I did some things at the BBC and I shot Dame Edith Evans, Alan Osborne and
Albert Finney for The Observer. I also worked for an American newspaper and
they took me to Brighton to do a story on the film Oh! What a Lovely War!,
and that’s how I got to photograph Richard Attenborough.turning point for me – he became my
mentor and I would often shoot with
him on the streets of Paris.
There can’t be too many
photographers who can say Henri
Cartier-Bresson was their mentor?
Absolutely, I was very lucky. There
was Bob Capa too.
They were very different
characters. How did you
actually meet Capa?
I have to backtrack a bit... I had gone
to New York to get work in the
theatre, but I then went with a friend
on this trip to Paris. While I was there,
I went to a birthday party – we were
all singing happy birthday and an
agent came up and asked me if
Above:
Montmartre,
Paris 1950.
The model is
wearing one of
first post-World
War II ready-to-
wear designs.
Marilyn took her
fashion shoots to
the streets to find
new backgrounds
for her pictures
while also
discovering Paris.