REPORTAGE AWARD
On International Women’s
Day 2017, Marilyn Stafford
launched the global
competition that bears her
name, the Marilyn Stafford
FotoReportage Award. This
year Nikon is sponsoring
the award, which is granted
to a female photographer
working on a documentary
photo essay that raises
awareness of important,
yet under-reported, social,
environmental, economic
or cultural issues.What inspired you to
establish the award?
I’ve been fortunate to have
had the opportunities that
allowed me to build a
career. But there must begreat women out there
who could benefit from
funding to carry on their
work. The responsibility for
childcare still often falls to
women, which can make it
difficult to pursue other
goals. I wanted the award
to help ease the financial
pressures associated with
family obligations. I know
from experience that to
go somewhere to cover a
story on a freelance basis
you need financial support.
Whether that’s to fund the
trip, provide protection,
or to open a door to an
opportunity. I hope the
award can help women
overcome some of these
financial hurdles.we went over and didn’t charge
newspapers (to go there) we would
be able to let them select what they
wanted – they would save money
and we would make money! So we
only went over with The Observer as
our first client and covered all of the
fashion shows in Paris. We came
back with five or six other clients.
That was the start of the little agency
and that kept me going until I retired.
That was my basic stable income
that paid the bills and allowed me to
do the freelance things that I wanted
to do on the side.
What did you call your agency?
This will grab you: ASA. I was
working with this wonderful French
photographer called Michel Arnaud,
so Arnaud Stafford Associates. ASA.
It was Michel who said, “we’ve got to
move to Nikon cameras because
they’re so good!” I’d just been using
whatever I had and when we started
up ASA we both launched into using
Nikon. I just adored that camera and,
at that time, it was the beginning of
through-the-lens metering and
automatic wind on. Prior to that it
was just thumbs and I had arthritis in
my thumb, but with Nikon I was able
to get this wonderful little gadget
that screwed onto the bottom of the
camera. It didn’t make it that heavy
either and I was able to shoot very
well with it.
Was there a type of lighting you
looked for with your street and
fashion photography?
Street photography came about
because I didn’t have a studio and it
was my early period in Paris. I was
still discovering the city, so it was a
double pleasure to take clothes into
the streets and find interesting spots
and backgrounds to take pictures
with. It was not really anything
deeper than that. Of course, the kids
would follow and got in the pictures,
and anybody else who was around
and wanted to get in was sometimes
invited along as well.There is a wonderful sense of
spontaneity about those pictures...
I’m glad you feel that, because that’s
just what I was doing! Nothing was
heavily planned, except which area
to go to and then to find interesting
backgrounds or alleyways, writings
on the wall, or kids, whatever.Did you only go with one model
and the changes of clothes?
Yep, there was nothing fancy; there
was no money; no budget. I was
working for a PR office and it was all
very low-budget, and when I wasn’t
taking pictures, I was in the office.
It was a case of get into a cab with
one model and all the clothes, no
makeup lady – I did everything. But
because I had worked in studios and
seen what the photographers did to
make sure the clothes fitted right, or
that the hair was not blowing up the
wrong way, I knew what to look for.You have met many famous people
of the 20th century, but is there
someone you didn’t meet who you
really would have loved to have
photographed?
I’m going to reverse your question inthe sense that I think that if you are a
photographer you have to think like a
photographer, in other words take
pictures. During the early part of my
Paris life I wasn’t really thinking like a
photographer and when I was still
singing, a lot of very important
people would come into this dinner
club. Maybe because I was an
American I would often be invited
over to their table to talk to them as
they wanted to know how this young
woman got to France.
One evening, Eleanor Roosevelt
came in with one of her sons and an
American screen actress called
Marsha Hunt and her husband. They
were having their dinner and they
invited me to their table. We had
quite some time talking together and
I never once thought at that moment,
‘take a photograph of Eleanor
Roosevelt’, which was so stupid!
That is my real regret because of
all the many women who I honour
and respect... she was a great
humanitarian; she was a journalist;
she was an advocate of human
rights, civil rights, women’s rights,
African-American and minority
rights. She became chair of the
United Nations Human Rights
Committee, which helped write the
universal declaration of human
rights. This lady to me was to be
honoured and I regret not having
her portrait, I really do.Which of your images are
you most proud of and why?
I’m most proud of my Algerian
refugee series that I shot in Tunisia
in 1958. I took those photographs
during a time when people didn’t
mention refugees. We do now, but
in the late ’50s it wasn’t front page
news. However, through the kind
help of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the
images made the front page of The
Observer and the paper also sent a
journalist to cover the story. I’ve
always been very proud about this
series, because I felt like I’d shone a
light on a subject that hadn’t been
widely mentioned at the time and
helped to bring the refugees’ plight
to the attention of the world.What is the best piece of advice
you would give to aspiring
documentary photographers?
Be true to yourself, respect the
subject and keep going!Next Month
-Hƚ0LWFKHOO
*HWW\SUHVV
SKRWRJUDSKHUIt was Michel Arnaud
who said, “we’ve got
to move to Nikon
cameras because
they’re so good!”
MARILYN STAFFORD