This image of Marilyn’s ‘tree dance’ scene from The Misfits graces posters for Inge Morath: Photography is a Personal Matter, an exhibition honouring the eminent photojournalist who became Arthur Miller’s third wife, now on display at the Saint-Benin Centre in Aosta, Italy until March 16.
“Inge Morath was the first woman to join the famous Magnum Photos agency. As she herself declared: ‘Photography is essentially a personal matter: the search for an inner truth.’
Through over 150 original images and documents, the exhibition retraces the human and professional journey of Inge Morath, from her early days alongside Ernst Haas and Henri Cartier-Bresson to her collaboration with prestigious magazines such as Picture Post, Life, Paris Match, Saturday Evening Post, and Vogue, through her main travel reportages.
A new exhibition project, produced by Suazes in collaboration with Fotohof and Magnum Photos, which will allow the public to appreciate the sensitivity of this author and to discover, for the first time in Italy, parts of her work never exhibited before, some of which are highly topical.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual Italian-French catalogue published by Dario Cimorelli Editore, with reproductions of the works and critical texts by John P. Jacop, Kurt Kaindl and Brigitte Blüml-Kaindl, Daria Jorioz and Marco Minuz. The catalogue can be purchased at the exhibition at a price of 30 euros.”
Moreover, another Inge Morath retrospective has now opened at the Malagueta Cultural Centre in Spain, on display until May 1.
“The exhibition is an exquisite chronological retrospective with more than a hundred photographs that cover her entire life and work, from her beginnings until her death in 2002, including the famous snapshots of Marilyn.
It was in 1960 when she was, together with the great photographers of the Magnum agency, on the set of the film The Misfits, the last one that Marilyn Monroe completed before her death. On the set, while taking the photos, which have now become legendary, she met Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe’s husband, the film’s screenwriter and, at that time, perhaps the greatest American playwright. Miller and Marilyn would soon separate and Arthur Miller would marry Inge Morath. Both would spend the following years travelling the world, writing and photographing places that were inaccessible at that time, such as Russia and China.
Inge Morath’s photographic work is characterised, on the one hand, by her humanistic cultural documentation, the result of her intense travelling activity throughout her life and her desire to immerse herself in foreign cultures and ways of life. It was during these travels that Morath produced some of her most famous images.
Portraits also play a central role in her work. In addition to fleeting encounters with passers-by, Inge Morath primarily photographed people from the world of culture. Her long-standing friendship with artists and later her marriage to Arthur Miller opened many doors for her, including literally entering the studios and apartments of these artists, whom she often documented. The writer Philip Roth once described her as a ‘gentle intruder.’
With her work as a portraitist, she always sought to discover the most authentic side of her subjects, even with celebrities … Many of these works were taken in colour, something rare in the 1950s, and remained unknown for a long time, including her photographs taken in Spain, which can now be seen in Malaga.”
UPDATE:
Another Inge Morath retrospective has opened in her native Austria. I Can’t Believe My Eyes is on display at the Flatz Museum in Dornbirn until May 31.
The Marilyn Report 