Lesser Known 1950s Harlem World Fashion Scenes

For Eve Arnoldhis late start to life turned out to be a blessing in disguise, allowing him to experience the fullness of life before committing to photography when he was 36 years old. Naturally from the start, Arnold quickly distinguished himself in a male-dominated world. , being the first woman to join Magnum Photos in the 1950s.

Throughout his storied career, Arnold forged his own path exploring the social injustices, civil rights, religion, power, fame, sexuality, and issues of birth that are as central to culture wars now as they were then.. On July 1, Newlands House Gallery presented To Know About Women: Eve Arnold Photography, the first major British artist retrospective in ten years. The show brings together more than 90 photographs taken over six decades that explore Arnold’s use of the camera as a tool of liberation. Is photographing Hollywood icons Marilyn Monroe, Marlene DietrichAnd Elizabeth Tayloror documenting the Black Is Beautiful movement of the ’60s, Arnold is deeply in tune with the transformative power of collaboration.

Eve Arnold loves human stories and she really cares. She was never looking for cheap thrills, says Maya Binkin, artistic director of Newlands Home Gallery. He had a lot of empathy, and spent a lot of time researching people and talking to them, really getting to know them. Later in life, he said that maybe he was naive but he thought he could use photography to lift a mirror and make change happen.

Arnold never aspired to be a photographer; after her marriage broke up in 1948, shortly after the birth of her only child, Frank. Arnold, then 36 years old, exercised his newfound freedom and signed up for a six-week photography course with the legend Harper’s Market art director Alexey Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research in Greenwich Village. In class, assignment number two is a fashion shoot. He hates fashion photography, says Binkin. He found it tedious and stagnant but was determined to break through it.

Arnold wisely takes the matter to reliable sources: Nora, his son’s governess, and the residents of Harlem. He accepted an invitation to meet top model Charlotte Stribling, better known as Fabulous, at an upcoming event at the deconsecrated Abyssinian Church. While Arnold felt self-conscious as an amateur stepping into a professional role, he was little aware that his presence as a white woman with a camera was a singular event in itself. Like Charles Dickens’ classic, The history of New York can be written as the story of two cities, with layered stories of people of color who were largely marginalized, misrepresented, stolen from, or erased. Although Harlem has experienced a literal renaissance during the first half of the 20th century, it remains a world largely unknown to those who have never traveled north of 96th Street.

An all-black crowd greeted Arnold, and happily opted for the $40 Rolliecord camera he held in his hand. Not wanting to disrupt the energy in the room, he went backstage and began snapping pictures of the models as they prepared to walk down the runway. Stribling and the other models collaborate playfully on shots, creating moments of candor and camp with aplomb. He later described Stribling as move like a golden beast of a leopard, perhaps, or a tiger.

Arnold returned to class and handed in his printout, at which Brodovitch declared his work completely new and fresh. He instructed Arnold to return to Harlem and continue his work, a directive he remembered. Over the next year, Arnold chronicled Harlem’s burgeoning fashion scene, documenting designers, models, and the audience at local church halls, nightclubs, bars, and restaurants. He regularly accepted invitations backstage and into people’s homes, creating a single archive in an era when black people were almost entirely excluded from the fashion industry.

After American magazines refused to publish the series, in 1951 Arnold sent his photographs to Picture Post in London, who published it in an eight-page spread accompanied by racist screeds demeaning women in its photographs. Devastated, Arnold immediately took control of his work ensuring it would never be used to denigrate those he wished to raise.

That year, Arnold began working with Magnum’s photo. With their protection and support, Arnold was able to ensure the integrity of his work, whether photographing the McCarthy audience or the Nation of Islam demonstrations. Coming from poverty, he was very interested in how discrimination works and he wanted to photograph the underdog, said Binkin. He photographed the underprivileged, the silenced, and the marginalized.

Arnold understood the power of photography lies in its ability to change the way we see the world. For years. I have searched for the meaning of the term photojournalism. What’s that? Arnold wrote in his last book, In Retrospect. Arnold returns to the essay written by art critic Gene Baro for his exhibition catalogue, which emphasizes that photojournalism is not just an illustration of text, but a form of storytelling and recording in its own right. If a photographer cares about the people in front of the lens and is compassionate, much goes a long way, he says. It’s the photographer, not the camera, it’s the instrument.

To Know About Women: Eve Arnold Photography on display at Newlands House Gallery in Petworth, West Sussex from 1 July 2023 to 7 January 2024.