Last week there were two sad deaths in showbiz that made the whole community go out and by hundreds of Kleenex. The fabulous photographer Eve Arnold who is thought to be 'one of the 20th century's foremost photographers and a pioneer of photojournalism, died aged 99. If this wasn't sad enough, just two days later one of the most popular quiz show presenters Bob Holness died aged 83, someone pass me a tissue, I hate the panda eye look.
Eve Arnold was born in Philadelphia in April 1912 to Russian immigrant parents. She lived in Long Island in poverty, which is where she became interested in photography when her boyfriend gave her camera and she became a keen amateur photographer. Well I think anyone would, what with all that nice scenery, plus the Ice Tea's of course must have helped a bit.
Eve didn't just photograph film stars or models, her subjects included migrant labourers, New York bartenders, Cuban fishermen and Afghan nomads. Famous people she did photograph include the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and political figures including Jackie Kennedy, Malcolm X and Margaret Thatcher. Katie Price pouting away was nowhere to be seen.
Eve was renowned for having a rapport with the people that she photographed, this helped a great deal when she wanted to get pictures of real life or get the person to relax. She said 'If you're careful with people and if you respect their privacy, they will offer part of themselves that you can use.' I think the paparazzi should put this in practise, I don't know if its just me, but I don't really want to see up Sarah Harding's skirt.
Her most famous pictures are of the stunning Marilyn Monroe, she took photos of her over a decade and they are collected in several books including Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation. The photos show her both glamourous and vulnerable and they are beautifully taken. Mario Testino eat your heart out.
Eve said about her work that 'Themes recur again and again in my work. I have been poor and I wanted to document poverty; I had lost a child and I was obsessed with birth. I was interested in politics and I wanted to know how it affected our lives; I am a woman and I wanted to know about women. In 1951 Eve joined Magnum Photos, a living archive of diversity in photos taken by its members. Eve was the first women to join the cooperative after her images of fashion shows in Harlem caught the attention of photographer
Henri Cartier Bresson.
Eve began working for the Sunday Times Magazine and other publications in the 1960s in London. In the 1970s she photographed and filmed Dubai's ruling family for 'Behind the Veil' and was one of the first American photographers to work in China. Eve was definitely not a slob around watching Jeremy Kyle all day kinda of girl.
Eve had her first solo show exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in 1980 and published as 'In China'. Other volumes of her work include 'In America' and the 'Great British.' In 1996 her work was exhibited at Britain's National Portrait Gallery and was the subject of a show at the Barbican in London the same year. Eve has one a lot of awards, in 1995 she was named Master Photographer by New York's International Center of Photography. In 2003 she received an OBE from the queen for her services to photography and in 2009 she received a lifetime acheivement prize.
She will be sorely missed by her fans and the photography world, but we always have her stunning pictures to look at, I'm sure we will enjoy oogling over her picture of Terence Stamp in a suit and hat, well I certainly will anyway.
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| Angelica Huston |
Here are some of her lovely photos for you to enjoy, but watch it Terence is mine.
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| Dick Bogarde |
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| Malcolm X |
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| Margaret Thatcher & Indira Gandhi |
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| Jackie Kennedy |
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| Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton |
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Nomads in Afghanistan
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| Barmaid, New York City |
Bob Holness another gem in the showbiz world has died aged 83 peacefully in his sleep. He is best known for hosting the popular quiz Blockbusters which he presented from 1983 until 1994. Bob was born Robert Wentworth John Holness on the 12th November 1928 in South Africa. When he was seven his family moved to Kent and in 1955 he received his first job as a radio presenter. Bob joined the BBC on Late Night Extra on Radio 1 and 2, presenting alongside the likes of Terry Wogan and Michael Parkinson.
His television career began in 1961 when he became the host of UK game show 'Take a Letter' and then began presenting Blockbusters in 1984. Blockbusters was a popular quiz show for 16-18 year old's broadcast in the late afternoon and ran for more than 1,300 programmes even if it did give away a few dodgy prizes, a personal fact file anyone? Well its better then repeats of Deal or no Deal or Flog It.
Bob invited contestants to choose a letter on the board and then they were asked a trivia question based on that letter. Ie. Which blogger starting with 'S' has a huge shoe collection and a love of a bubble bath and pickled onions? The answer is Second Hand Rose, but I doubt that was one of the questions. I wasn't even thought of then. The show was really popular with everyone, from teenagers to old grannies shouting out the answer while eating their shortbread and knitting, that's me in a nutshell actually. At its peak it attracted 11.5 million viewers daily. He was loved by all, even spotty teenagers even though he was middle- aged, conventional and married to the same woman for nearly six decades, he was hardly down with the kids.
He is thought of as a national treasure and when his death was announced fans affectionately borrowed one of his most celebrated lines of his 60 year career 'Can I have a P please Bob?' and changed it to ask: 'Can I have an R please Bob? And an I....and a P? In the 80s no weekday was complete without this programme which was a bit like the junior version of Countdown, apart from the ticking clock and the boffins in Dictionary corner oh and Carol Vodrerman making us all feel like we need to go back to school.
It may seem hard to imagine but posters of Bob were put on teenagers bedroom walls all over the country and the teens who had appeared on the show and received a Bob doll used it as a mascot. He even had groupies who had badges saying 'I want U, Bob' and they made trips to Pinner where he lived , in the hope of catching a glimpse of him.
Not only being a quiz show master and a respected radio broadcaster and theatre actor once playing James Bond in Moonraker in 1956, he was a patron of many charities. Bob suffered a stroke in 2003 and became less of a presence on TV, but he returned for one night to host a Blockbuster special on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway in 2004. Some of you may not know who he is, but games like Blockbuster and Bullseye are a part of our history and he will go down as one of the best quiz show hosts ever and the most loved. So Bob can I have an L for Louboutin's please? Ta very much.
Second Hand Rose
XxxX
Now Ladies and Gentlemen I'm sure after reading this you will think that I'm Marilyn Monroe obsessed and I should be admitted to The Priory for watching Some Like It Hot with a bar of Galaxy far too many times. In March I wrote about the Marilyn Monroe Exhibition, that is open in London until the 23rd May and the Hollywood Legends Auction in Beverly Hills, that contained over hundreds of Marilyn photos, which you can read about by clicking the links. Well now I'm writing yet another post about the curvalicious babe, I doubt anyone in the bloggersphere is complaining about this right now though, particularly the male species.
Now for full Marilyn overload I have some more photos for you all. These photos were taken six weeks before her tragic death taken on her last ever photo shoot in 1962. They are a complete set of rare chromogenic prints taken by photographer Bert Stern. They are topless photos of the star. Well, when I say topless I don't mean FHM topless, I mean you see the top of her chest a teensy bit, sorry lads.
Original shots taken from the session called 'The Last Sitting' are in huge demand across the world and were originally taken for Vogue. The pictures have been displayed for many years, so the colour has 'shifted' somewhat, ie. they look a bit like your Grandma's faded photos from the 60's of her and your Granddad living it up.
