'Fantastic place, full of beautiful magazines. I just love this shop.’ the world of great indie mags is here in <strong>Brighton</strong>. 22 Trafalgar Street magazinebrighton.com @magbrighton magazinebrighton
PHOTOGRAPHY .................................... Marilyn Stafford Stories in pictures “I guess it’s rather nice for me to be able to say that my first portrait was of Einstein and my last was of Indira Gandhi,” says Shoreham-resident photographer Marilyn Stafford, who is relaying her extraordinary (if almost accidental) career behind the camera. “I grew up in the Cleveland Playhouse Theatre, in Ohio, and I did what one does after university: I went to New York to become the Great American Actress. I met lots of people, some of them in the film industry. This was after the war and they wanted to make a film about Einstein, who spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons, and they asked me if I’d like to come along. As we drove to Princeton I was given a 35mm camera, shown how to focus it and told, ‘you are going to be the stills lady’.” Next there was a stint as an assistant to fashion photographer Francesco Scavullo. “At the time we called it ‘picking up pins’ because the clothes didn’t fit well and were pinned at the back. He would talk about all the glamorous shots that he wanted, and I just wanted to get out and photograph people and street life. Things that were, to me, vital.” So in 1948 Marilyn moved to Paris, working as a singer in an exclusive supper club, then, when she lost her voice, shooting the early ready-to-wear fashion collections. Freed from the constraints of couture, she took the models out onto the streets, a place she never tired of photographing. “I used to get on a bus and go to the end of the line and then get off and walk. I found this little alleyway near the Bastille. It was really like Alice going down the rabbit hole and, at end of the passage, there was a village. It had been, in its day, very elegant but had gone downhill and become Paris’ most notorious slum, Cité Lesage-Bullourde.” Whilst in Paris, she met ‘Bob’ Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, who both became friends and allies, “Capa was like an older brother.” Years later and married to a foreign correspondent covering the Algerian War of Independence, Marilyn declared “I want to photograph refugees. Nobody is talking about them.” Her photographs from the Tunisian border were sent by Cartier-Bresson to The Observer and, in 1958, Marilyn had her first front page. The family then moved to Lebanon, where Marilyn again turned her camera away from the ex-pat glamour. “I’m not interested in that at all. I’m interested in people and in telling stories about people. I called my monograph Stories in Pictures because I really consider myself a storyteller more than anything else.” There are a great many more fascinating chapters to Marilyn’s own story - too many to retell here - but she is quick to acknowledge the help she’s had along the way. “When I came to England there were ten women working in Fleet Street. I never would have been able to get any work without help.” So last year she approached Nina Emett, from FotoDocument, and together they established the Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award for work by a female photographer, which documents a social issue and highlights a positive solution. “The first award went to Rebecca Conway, for her project about people traumatised by the insurgency in Kashmir, and about what people are doing to help. “There are a great many stories that I want to tell about issues in the world and I know that I’m not alone. There are other women who have stories and concerns like mine, and I want those stories to come out.” Lizzie Lower marilynstaffordphotography.com Stories in Pictures is available on Amazon Photo © Geoff Brokate ....29....