Marilyn Stafford - A Life in Photography

MARILYN STAFFORD

A Life in Photography

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I would like to dedicate this book to my darling daughter, Lina.

Marilyn’s daughter, Lina, New York, 1963.

Published by Bluecoat Press, Liverpool. ISBN 9781908457707
© All photographs are the copyright of Marilyn Stafford 2021. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
Images courtesy of Fairchild Media LLC: may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
pages 140,145,152,154,155, 162. or transmitted in any form or by any means,
Design: Daniel Bickerton. electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
Printed in Czechia by Latitude Press. otherwise, without prior permission from the publisher.

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MARILYN STAFFORD

A Life in Photography

Compiled and Edited by Nina Emett.
Assisted by Marilyn’s daughter, Lina Clerke.

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Marilyn, New York, 1948.
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FOREWORD

Imagine a biography that reveals that your very first professional the Algerian War of Independence. Her most outstanding photograph
photograph was a 1948 portrait of Albert Einstein shot at his home in from this trip shows a mother cradling her baby in a refugee camp and
Princeton, New Jersey, on a hastily borrowed 35mm camera. For most is astonishingly reminiscent of Dorothea Lange’s iconic‘Migrant Mother’
photographers, this would be the pinnacle of their career. Not for the taken in 1936 for the US government’s Farm Security Administration. The
extraordinary Marilyn Stafford, for whom it was just the start. The world- exhausted eyes and lines on both women’s faces tell a similar story of
famous German born theoretical physicist was the first of many notable suffering, poverty, and pain. The empathy and connection between the
people that Stafford would photograph and socialise with during her expectant Marilyn and the nursing mother fleeing from war is evident.
incredible life. One of his famous quotes could have been written for her, After a period living and working in Italy and Lebanon, Stafford and her
‘Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important husband separated in the 1960s and she moved to London with her seven-
thing is not to stop questioning.’ year-old daughter, Lina. Things were tough for the single mother, and she
Soon after meeting Einstein, aged 24, Marilyn left the US and traveled to needed all her formidable resolve, along with sharp eyes and elbows to
Paris where she found work singing in the dinner club Chez Carrère near succeed in the macho-fuelled Fleet Street world, where there were only
the Champs-Élysées. The club’s clientele reads like a‘who’s who’of the rich about a dozen women working as photographers. Her determination was
and famous from that heady post-WWII period, with people like Édith Piaf, rewarded with regular work that gave her access to swinging London’s
Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Aznavour and Bing Crosby frequenting. A-list celebrities, such as Twiggy, Donovan, Richard Attenborough, Rudolf
Living in Paris was cheap, and Marilyn enjoyed her bohemian friends Nureyev, and tough guy actor Lee Marvin.
and lifestyle to the full. In 1971, a month-long trip to India documenting Indira Gandhi produced
Her days were spent meandering the streets of Paris with her camera, which some memorable photographs, including a classic shot of the nation’s
brought her to the notorious Cité Lesage-Bullourde district, near the Bastille. first, and to date, only woman Prime Minister emerging from a crowd of
It was home to poor migrant families living in overcrowded, rat-infested male officials to board her plane, perfectly capturing Gandhi’s piercing
rooms with little sanitation or running water. This reportage is a rare and expression and renowned steely character. Stafford also caught the softer
invaluable record of extreme poverty in this neighbourhood of post-war side of India’s‘Iron Lady’in a tender moment where she is seen presenting
Paris. Marilyn was fascinated by the vibrant energy of the quartier and a rose to a wounded soldier at his hospital bedside in Kashmir and at home
delighted in photographing the mischievous children out on the streets with her grandchildren.
who besieged her every step. It is only when Marilyn Stafford’s images are gathered all together in a book
Later in the 50s, Marilyn was introduced to Henri Cartier-Bresson, the that you begin to appreciate the breadth and beauty of her work and her
already famous founder of Magnum, who upon discovering that she loved life. Actors, artists, writers, politicians, peasants, fashion models, migrants,
photography invited her to join him on walks. It is not hard to imagine the musicians, refugees, and street children, all captured on film with skill, love,
scene as the pair snapped life on the Paris boulevards - Marilyn, petite and humour and respect.
elegant, focusing her large Rolleiflex camera on curious people, Marilyn always says,‘Photographers don’t grow old – they just grow
all the while diverting attention away from the tall French master as he out of focus’and, at 95, she is anything but unfocused. Chatting about
flitted around unnoticed, hunting decisive moments with his small Leica. photography surrounded by a selection of her stunning fashion shots at
When she was asked by a PR agency to photograph the new Ready-to-Wear the Hull International Photography Festival where we first met in 2017
fashion trend, it seemed natural to Marilyn to use her beloved Paris streets was a joy.
as a backdrop instead of a glamorous studio setup - unheard of at the time. With her optimism, infectious smile and twinkling eyes, it’s easy to see why
The pioneering street fashion images are still some of the most striking her subjects - rich, poor, young and old - felt at ease when she turned her
and beautiful in her extensive archive. She says,‘They were not just fashion camera their way.
photographs, they were fun photographs. The kids loved it, I loved it and This book has been a long time coming, but Marilyn Stafford - A Life in
the models loved it and I think it shows in the pictures.’ Photography has definitely been worth waiting for. Enjoy!
In 1956 Marilyn married Robin Stafford, a British foreign correspondent Tom Stoddart
based in Paris. Two years later, despite being six months pregnant, Photojournalist
she headed to North Africa on a self-assigned project to document the
refugees fleeing France’s lethal aerial bombardment of their villages during 5

SOMETHING IMPO

The photographs of Marilyn Stafford

At a time when women were expected to be mothers and wives, not study in shock, are especially affecting. Cartier-Bresson sent her photos to
professional photographers, Marilyn Stafford blazed her way into the Observer newspaper in London; they were published on the front page –
photographic history. Her distinctive approach was deceptively casual and something Stafford describes as one of her proudest moments. More than a
yet psychologically revealing. Over four decades from 1948, she would decade later her photographs of survivors of the genocidal rape of between
shoot world leaders and poets; artists, writers, and mourning mothers; 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women by the Pakistan Military junta, led to a
children playing on the street, victims of war, refugees, and fashion models. story in the Guardian that, in turn, led to money being raised for women in
Having grown up in the Depression, she was acutely sensitive: she wanted need in Bangladesh.
to use her camera to cast a light on injustice, to tell stories that had, in her Like Lee Miller, Stafford became rightly known for her fashion shoots –
words,‘something important to say’. which are full of fun, individuality, and spirit: Twiggy, angelic with eyelashes
Stafford’s photographs are, in the main, black and white – newspapers like a Picasso drawing; Joanna Lumley, dreaming by a window in Jean
tended not to print colour, but she always found it more nuanced, anyway Muir’s showroom in London. In Paris, she photographed models in the
– and shot in natural light. She instinctively gravitated towards what Roland 1950s on the boulevards and squares of Paris and often included passers-
Barthes called‘the punctum’of an image: the detail that animates the by in the frame. However, fashion, for her, was simply a way of earning a
whole. Without fail her work reveals something fresh in a familiar subject: living; in between jobs, she documented the impoverished areas of the
the way Einstein placidly looks to his right, as if he’s been momentarily city around Boulogne-Billancourt and the slum neighbourhood of Cité
interrupted; the striped dress of an exuberant girl on the streets of Paris Lesage-Bullourde near the Bastille; she was particularly moved by the area’s
who strikes a pose, her arms spread wide, like wings; a Bedouin dancer, lost street kids. A group of boys jostle each other, clowning for the camera; a
in the music; the stoicism of a mother’s expression in a refugee camp. boy seated on the pavement with soulful eyes and bare, skinny legs, looks
A camera, in Stafford’s hands, is a radical tool, a way of amplifying up from the book he’s reading. Stafford’s eye is always attuned to mood and
under-represented voices. Her work is part of a noble tradition of female atmosphere: these are children born at the tail-end of the war: what they
photojournalists: from Tina Modotti in 1920s and ’30s Mexico, to Lee Miller have lived through has marked them forever – but their youthful energy
and Thérèse Bonney’s photo-essays shot in a Europe ravaged by war. Like and sense of possibility is contagious. When she met the legendary Henri
Bonney, Stafford is particularly attuned to the plight of civilians, especially Cartier-Bresson, he encouraged her work in street photography; she turned
children. She was less interested in whether her work was art or not than if her lens on him and portrayed him lining up a shot in a raincoat. I asked
it could be an agent for change. Stafford what she learned from Cartier-Bresson. She replied,‘I remember
In 1958, six months pregnant, Stafford travelled to Tunisia to highlight we were in a café and he had a Leica in his hand, and he took a photo
the desperation of the refugee crisis caused by the Algerian War of imperceptibly. He taught me you had to be invisible.’
Independence. She focused on the individual stories amid national It was a lesson she obviously took to heart. The subjects of her photographs
crises, shining her camera like a spotlight on suffering. Her portraits of the are indifferent to her presence. In the early 1960s, she swapped the streets
resilience of mothers protecting their wide-eyed children, their faces a of Paris for Lebanon, where she was commissioned to shoot pictures for
a book on the region to encourage tourism. She portrayed Beirut as a
6

ORTANT TO SAY

multi-layered, cosmopolitan city, filled with cinemas, scantily clad young Sharon Tate, eyes wide, leaning on the back of a chair, deep in discussion;
people flirting on the beach at the Sporting Club, American cars, and palm Alan Bates, restless in a thick coat, smiling at someone off camera;
trees but also a place rich with history and tradition. She was drawn to the Sir Richard Attenborough, in a pin-striped suit, a cigarette in one hand,
small stories of everyday life: a lone man on a roof in a village; a bride on gesticulating wildly with the other.
her throne, her tweed suit contrasting with the traditional costumes of the In 1971, Stafford travelled to India for the first time to photograph India’s
women with her; a fruit seller roaring with laughter beneath a bunch of first female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi; she was travelling between
bananas; the tender expression of a man in a kaffiyeh holding seven eggs; Mumbai and Delhi to meet her when Mrs Gandhi announced there would
a beauty contestant smiling at her, beneath lowered eyes, as she’s ogled be Indian retaliation to war declared by Pakistan, which in just thirteen
by men. Stafford’s refusal to treat anyone as a type is clear in every shot. days, would bring the brutal Bangladesh Liberation War to a close. Stafford
‘When you take a photograph’, she said,‘your whole life experience is there. captured the aftermath of the short, interventionist Indo-Pakistani War,
And it hits you somewhere.’Perhaps unsurprisingly, the original Lebanese largely through the eyes of her protagonist. Her portraits of Gandhi are
publisher who was lined up to create a book of her work from that period filmic: moments in a grand narrative captured with an unselfconscious
rejected her photographs: they were too subtle for his purposes. naturalness. The Prime Minister walks up the steps of a plane towards the
Stafford rarely stopped travelling. In 1961, in Rome, she photographed an photographer, her face a study in concentration; she consults with her
illiterate Sicilian olive picker, Francesca Serio. She was the first person to aides; she’s a speck on a stage, rousing the crowds or visiting a wounded
bring the mafia to trial: they had murdered her son, who was organising soldier with a flower and being embraced by a well-wisher.
a trade union for field workers. (Her case was initially won but then The photographs are spontaneous, full of detail and personality; Gandhi is
overturned.) Stafford’s portrayal of the grieving mother is haunting: in pictured as both a world leader and a woman, at once weighed down and
dramatic, chiaroscuro tones, Serio’s wise, gravely beautiful face is etched exhilarated by her responsibilities.
with mourning. Her beseeching hand reaches out, a tiny image of her son, I asked Stafford what, to her mind, makes a good photograph. She thought
pinned to her chest. It’s an evocation of grief that, with its intermingling of for a moment and responded that an image should function on both visual
the everyday and the holy, rivals many of the powerful religious paintings and emotional levels. I had one last question.‘What does she consider to
of the Renaissance or, more recently, the graphic depiction of despairing be her best work?’Without hesitating, she said:‘I say this very humbly. I
mothers in World War I by the German artist Kathe Köllwitz. want to make the world a better place and when I took the Algerian
Later that decade, Stafford was a single mother in London; as a woman, refugee photographs, I hoped that someone would do something about
documentary work was hard to get and so she freelanced for British and their situation.’
international newspapers and magazines, mainly photographing fashion Jennifer Higgie
models and actors. Stafford was clearly unfazed by fame; she was more Writer and author of The Mirror and the Palette: Revolution,
interested in the idiosyncrasies of the subject than in their career. It’s as Rebellion and Resilience, 500 Years of Women’s Self-Portraits
if we’ve wandered into a room and, without question, been immediately (Pub: Weidenfeld & Nicolson).
invited into the conversation. Albert Finney, rumpled, charismatic, smoking;

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INTRODUCTION

This retrospective work of US born photographer, Marilyn Stafford, India’s first and only woman Prime Minister, following the Indo-Pakistani
encompasses a wide selection of photographs from her international War of 1971; and in 1972 she focused her humanitarian lens on the victims
archive spanning five decades from 1948-1983. It focuses on the of violence and rape in the aftermath of the Bangladesh Liberation War.
people and places she photographed, telling their engaging stories, There are key narratives which permeate
and highlighting the issues she cares passionately about. It is semi- Stafford’s work: she was a pioneering
autobiographical, with a strong personal narrative throughout. woman photographer at a time when
there were few in her field; she had a sense
Born in 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, Marilyn of wanderlust leaving her native US to
Stafford (née Gerson) planned to become live and work in different places around
an actress following her early training at the the world when it was relatively unusual
Cleveland Play House. Her parents, Dorothy for American women to do so; she was an
and Maurice Gerson, longed for her to become advocate for women’s rights in the industry
the new Shirley Temple, like so many from through her role as stills representative
that era. Although she set out on the path to on the Executive Committee of the
child stardom, the twists and turns of fate – or Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph
synchronicities as she prefers to frame them - & Theatre Union (BECTU); her work is
took her on a different life trajectory, moving her broad-ranging, representing her practical
from centre stage to behind the view finder. need to chase hard-won opportunities to make a living and support her
In 1946 Stafford went to New York City in daughter, balanced with her desire to cover issues of international concern.
search of fame and fortune. She succeeded in Stafford relished portrait or fashion shoots for British, US and international
gaining small acting roles off Broadway and in newspapers and magazines, in part because they helped to fund her social
early television. Her interest in photography documentary work that she hoped, above all, would make a difference.
was first piqued in 1947 when she was given a Stafford still wants to make a difference. In 2017, she founded the Marilyn
Rolleiflex camera by a friend. This prompted her Stafford FotoReportage Award, facilitated by arts social enterprise
to find photography work to support herself in FotoDocument, which is granted annually to a professional woman
between acting parts. Her first job was to assist documentary photographer towards the completion of a compelling
US fashion photographer Francesco Scavullo, photo-essay that shows solutions to any social or environmental issues it
which included the mixing of dark room raises. This Award has been supported by both Olympus UK and Nikon UK
chemicals as well as‘picking up the pins’which and represents Stafford’s strong wish to create lasting positive impact as
fell off the clothes when the models breathed part of her legacy.
out after a shoot!

Her photographic career was formally launched, however, in autumn She acknowledges today that there
1948 when she took her first portrait of Albert Einstein. The rest, as they was one person who was a significant
say, is‘herstory’, unravelled in the pages of this book… Stafford went presence and influence throughout her
on to photograph many influential people all over the world during her life who appears regularly throughout the
fascinating life including Édith Piaf, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Indira Gandhi, pages of this book - the internationally
Albert Finney, Sir Richard Attenborough, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Twiggy acclaimed Indian writer, Mulk Raj Anand.
and Joanna Lumley. She also photographed many ordinary people like He was supportive of her personally, and
the illiterate Sicilian peasant woman, Francesca Serio, who took the Mafia was also a great advocate of her work,
to trial for murdering her son and the Parisian children of the Cité Lesage- encouraging her to take brave new steps
Bullourde neighbourhood living in slum housing conditions. Stafford also on a road less travelled by women at that
witnessed some significant, and sometimes turbulent, periods of modern time. Through his writing connections, he
social and political history: she photographed Algerian refugees in Tunisia introduced her to many of the important
fleeing the Algerian War of Independence in 1958; she captured Lebanon in people who became central to some of
the 1960s during a time of peace before civil war would ravage the country her best work, including Henri Cartier-
a decade later; she created an intimate photo-essay about Indira Gandhi, Bresson, Carlo Levi and Indira Gandhi.

8 Marilyn, age 2, Cleveland, Ohio, 1927 • Marilyn playing Anya, in off-Broadway Equity Library Production of Anton Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard, New York, 1948. • Marilyn’s daughter, Lina, London, c1973 • Mulk Raj Anand, Bombay, c1975.

A selection of Stafford’s work is included in the archives of the University photography does indeed mean a more considered approach - but much
of Texas, USA and she has been widely published and broadcast in the of the 35mm work is eye-wateringly good, particularly the documentary.
Observer; the Guardian; the Times; the Telegraph, ITV News at Ten; Stephen It reveals a devilish eye for detail, a curiosity to‘pop the hood’and go
Sackur’s BBC Hard Talk; BBC South-east, BBC North, Sussex Life among many behind the scenes, a huge respect for form and structure, a penchant
international publications. for humorous juxtaposition, an emotional connection to whoever lies
In February 2019, Stafford deservedly received an Award for Exceptional beyond the shutter curtain, and there is always an intriguing storyline.
Achievement in Photography from best-selling UK publication, Amateur I have got to know Marilyn well over the years, or so I thought, but looking
Photographer. In March 2020, she received the Chairman’s Lifetime through the archive has brought me even closer to her… retrospectively.
Achievement Award from the UK Picture Editors’Guild Awards in London. So much is revealed through how one sees the world after all. I felt like
She will, no doubt, continue to receive recognition and plaudits for her I was behind the lens with her, indulging in glorious vignettes of life
outstanding and inspirational work. from another era, scrutinising her every thought process, so much so
that I could almost hear the visual cogs turning in her mind and the
Reflections from the editor: faint click of the shutter. It was exciting to travel with her in this way, and
to see reminiscences in style from some of the greats of her time - a
I have known Marilyn since 2014 when we first met through our shared geometrically formed André Kertesz, a decisively caught Henri Cartier-
passion for social documentary photography, most specifically its Bresson, a painterly but photojournalistic Homai Vyarawalla. But mostly
potential to create a better world. It soon became apparent that this was I could see Marilyn Stafford. And I knew that she, too, was a great.
not all we had in common. Both sides of my family - mother and father - It is perhaps easy to look at Marilyn’s life with rose-tinted glasses - it
are connected to Marilyn’s history, independently of each other - quite a may seem charmed from the outside looking in - the reality is that she
feat considering these links are through the circuitous international routes has experienced her fair share of challenges and disappointments. But
of Paris, London, Helsinki, and the Punjab. It turns out we even met when it seems to be her innate resilience and enviable adaptability that has
I was four years old. Beyond these synchronicities, getting to know the spurred her on in life to make the most of opportunities, to take risks, to
work, the stories, the person, and her humanitarian focus has moved me rise above knock-backs, and to divert course when things were not going
beyond words. I have found myself stepping into an oddly familiar yet to plan. A great lesson for us all.
bygone world, as if hailed from my ancestral imagination, and signifying It has been a huge privilege to compile and edit this retrospective work.
much that sparks interest or holds currency with me. Clearly, it has taken I could not have done it, however, without the patient assistance, research
just the right alchemical formula to create such a profound, durable, and skills, creative eye, and sense of humour of Marilyn’s daughter, Lina.
creative bond between us, which has seen us through the co-curation We have shared endless discussions, laughs and late nights together to
of exhibitions, the launching of an international women’s photography bring this extensive project to fruition.
award and the production of this retrospective book, as well as simply I must also extend my gratitude to the Marilyn Stafford Collective -
enjoying the many communications and occasions we have shared a group of industry gems who have provided a great deal of support
along the way. and guidance - and to our‘salt of the earth’publisher, Colin Wilkinson
When I was invited to explore Marilyn’s archive in depth for the first from Bluecoat Press, for believing in this book from the outset, for
time, just a few short months before the publishing of this work, I was his calm demeanour, and mostly for his unbridled passion for the
not quite prepared for the hidden treasures I would encounter. The medium of photography.
archive’s dubious packaging of faded plastic bags and cracked leathery I hope you enjoy the book and feel in some way moved by it -
holdalls belied its precious contents, which were hastily, yet painstakingly, I know this would be Marilyn’s main wish. It is intended to be a
transferred into museum quality archival boxes, before excavation could reflective and engaging look at a period of 20th century history
begin. Many months of forensic work ensued by our tiny team: matching through her unique gaze.
rogue negative strips with their positive contact sheets; creating new Nina Emett
contacts when the lightbox threw up promising shapes on the celluloid; Photographer, Curator,
visually scouring thousands of square formats and 35mm rectangles Founding Director of FotoDocument.
with a loupe; the scanning of the selected negatives and cuttings; and
finally, the fastidious postproduction work to take each image to digital 9
perfection. The squares generally threw up more consistent results
than the rectangles - as if finally settling the score that slower form

Photographing

Albert Einstein

This was the first portrait I ever took. I was accompanying a
film crew making a documentary about Einstein in which he
spoke out against the use of the atomic bomb. I was informed
on the way to his house that I was the stills photographer, so
I learnt how to use a 35mm SLR camera in the back of the car.
Einstein himself greeted us at the door of his wood-shingled
house. He was dressed simply in baggy trousers and a sweater
over an open neck shirt. While the lights were being arranged,
he queried the director about the 16mm film camera being
used and wanted details about how many feet per second /
per second the film went through it. Einstein listened intently,
nodding with great attention, while my friend explained.
Einstein just took a sort of deep breath and said, ‘Ah, yes, now
I understand’. Then he humbly thanked him. I thought this was
rather wonderful and modest of such a brilliant man. We went
back to New York and I gave my roll of film to the director who
processed it and made prints for me. It was a great day and an
honour to cherish it in my memory.

Albert Einstein, at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 1948.
Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist, best known for developing the theory of
10 relativity, and for the equation E=MC2, which preceded the development of atomic power.

11

Chapter One

PARIS IN
THE FIFTIES

Local butcher shop, Paris, 1950.
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Shop display with cat, Paris, c1950. 13

CHEZ CARRÈRE

I went from New York to Paris as a tourist in 1949, and I remained The photographer Robert Capa was among the many celebrities who
there for ten years. My long stay began, quite literally, by singing dropped into Chez Carrère in Paris after dinner for a nightcap. Like
for my supper. I was overheard singing Happy Birthday with dinner many others, I fell under his spell and silently adored him – but he
companions in a restaurant. A French impresario, dining at a nearby was strictly brotherly.
table, was searching for a singer for a small ensemble and asked if I We talked at the bar between my songs and once he said, ‘Your problem
would audition. I did and found myself singing in the most exclusive, is that men are always weeping on your shoulder, what you really need
elegant and celebrated dinner club in Paris – Chez Carrère – just off the is for someone to nibble it’.
Champs Élysées, the only club that Princess Elizabeth (as she was then) Working into the night was beginning to have a weakening effect on my
and her new husband, were permitted to attend. health and I felt the need to change professional direction.
One day the American singer Eddie Constantine joined our company. I asked Capa what he thought of this. He suggested I meet David
Eddie began a liaison with Édith Piaf. Every evening after singing at ‘Chim’ Seymour, a photographer and co-founder with Capa and Cartier-
the Casino de Paris, Édith Piaf came with her entourage to collect him. Bresson of Magnum, who was looking for an assistant. I did not feel like
Piaf had just bought a large house in the Bois de Boulogne and, for the carrying heavy equipment into war zones and replied, ‘No, thanks’. Chim
following few months, along with Eddie, I was invited back for breakfast became president of Magnum after Capa’s death by an exploding bomb
in the basement kitchen, the only liveable room, where a very long in Indochina and was himself killed by Egyptian machine gun fire while
table accommodating at least twenty people was always full of food. covering the armistice of the Suez War in 1956.
Among the regular guests was Charles Aznavour, who became a good
friend of mine.
Many, many years later, I ran into Eddie Constantine in Paris. ‘Ah’ he said
‘Petite Marilyn’… I asked how he was enjoying his success and he replied
how wonderful it was to be so recognised that he did not need to stand
in queues.
During the time I sang at Chez Carrère, I met many interesting and
famous people, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Yves Montand, Maurice
Chevalier, and Noel Coward who invited me to audition for a musical
production of Pal Joey in London. Later, he sent me a lengthy telegram
beginning, ‘Darling’, telling me the show was off. (Regretfully, over the
decades, I have lost that precious telegram).
One evening Bing Crosby came in with friends. He invited me to join
his table and said he had enjoyed hearing me sing. He was going to the
races the following day and invited me to go along with his friends. At
the races, Crosby explained his betting system, which was to check out
the jockeys and to check out the horses’ legs, so we sauntered about
looking at horses’ legs before each race, which he then bet upon.
He lost every bet despite his system.

Marilyn, Hôtel Rue de Prince, Marilyn with American singer and actor Bing
Paris, 1949. Crosby, Longchamps Racecourse, Bois de
Boulogne, Paris 1950.

14

Édith Piaf with Marguerite Monnot, songwriter and close friend, and Eddie Constantine, singer, Paris, c1950. 15

Édith Piaf, singer Eddie Constantine, and singer-songwriter Charles Aznavour, following tea at Grand Hôtel, Paris. C1950.
16

Édith Piaf (1915-1963), Paris, c1950.
Of humble origins, Piaf rose to worldwide fame, becoming one of France’s most well-loved chanteuses.

She was given the nickname Piaf, or ‘little sparrow’ because of her small, delicate stature.

‘Piaf always performed wearing black, here she is joyously wearing white, the day we all went out to tea at the Grand Hôtel in Paris.’ 17

CITÉ LESAGE-BULLOURDE ‘ Post-war Paris, the Cité Lesage-Bullourde, near the Bastille. A young girl in
a short-sleeved stripy dress is kneeling on the pavement as if taking a bow;
During my early days in Paris, I would get on a bus and get off at the her arms are stretched out as she holds hands with a younger girl behind her.
end of the line. One day I was enticed down a small passage near the Perhaps the girls have just done an impromptu dance for the photographer.
Place de la Bastille, which turned out to be a neighbourhood with The three boys behind them are larking around; everyone is smiling or
slum housing called Cité Lesage-Bullourde. laughing. One boy creates ‘rabbit ears’ behind the younger girl’s head
or is it a V for Victory sign? Another boy holds a small suitcase, adding
Entrance to Cité Lesage-Bullourde, Paris, c1950. intrigue to the photograph. There is a lot of bravado – the street is the
children’s playground and they have let Marilyn Stafford into their game
and allowed her to record their spontaneous street performance with
her Rolleiflex camera.
The photographer returns their affection by creating a dynamic and
sympathetic portrait, inspired by the growing canon of social documentary
and humanist street photography of the 1950s. This photograph, like all the
other photographs made by Marilyn Stafford in the Cité, puts the children
centre stage, and effectively captures incidental moments in their young lives.
This was a diverse neighbourhood: before the war, it had been home to
working-class French families, and migrants who worked as craftsmen,
carpenters, tailors, and merchants; many of whom were of Jewish origin.
After the war, new migrant groups arrived from North Africa, primarily from
Algeria. This led to even more crowded conditions and the deterioration of
living standards1. The torn poster fragments pasted to the wall behind the
children refer to the crisis in Algeria. The children represent the Cité’s post-war
demographics, a community whose neighbourhood would be demolished
in 1961, leading to the dispersal of the families to high-rise buildings in the
’suburbs. The Passage Lesage still exists but has been transformed
beyond recognition.
Dr Julia Winckler,
Photographer, Writer and Principal Lecturer at
University of Brighton .

1. J.F. Théry, 1959, p.207 from Théry, Jean-François 1959 ‘Les habitants
18 de la Cité-Lesage-Bullourde à Paris’, Vie Urbaine, 1959, no.3, Paris

Children strike a pose, Cité Lesage-Bullourde, Paris, c1950. 19

20 Contact sheet, children in the Cité Lesage-Bullourde, Paris, c1950.

Girl with milk bottle, Cité Lesage-Bullourde, Paris, c1950. 21

22 Communal water tap, Cité Lesage-Bullourde, Paris, c1950.

Girl in high heels,
Cité Lesage-Bullourde, Paris, c1950.

23

Boy on pavement with book, Boy on doorstep,
Cité Lesage-Bullourde, Paris, c1950. Cité Lesage-Bullourde, Paris, c1950.

24

Boys climbing wall, Cité Lesage-Bullourde, Paris, c1950. 25

BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT

Boulogne-Bilancourt is a western suburb of Paris. At the time of my bus ride, it
consisted of a beautiful leafy suburb at one end, housing film studios and the
producers, directors and artists working in them. At the other end was the Renault
car factory and a poor working-class population. My bus dropped me off near the
factory and there I encountered considerable poverty, with people sleeping in the
streets. But everywhere I went with my camera, friendly children followed me around
and even invited me into their classrooms. Today, Boulogne-Billancourt remains
lovely and leafy at one end and at the other it has become the flourishing home of
large international businesses and is one of the wealthiest suburbs in France.

Shop window, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, c1950. Child leaning over, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, c1950.
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27

28 Neighbours chatting, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, c1950.

Watching from the window, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, c1950. 29

30 Rough sleepers, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, c1950.

Woman asleep in pram, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, c1950. 31

32 Boys playing on the street, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, c1950.

School classroom, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, c1950. 33

CARTIER-BRESSON

Every year my Indian writer friend Mulk Raj Anand
visited Europe, during which time he introduced
me to many famous and interesting people, such
as Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet, Tristan Tzara, Paul
Eluard, Le Corbusier and Pablo Neruda, many of
whom I photographed. It was also Mulk Raj Anand
who first introduced me, in the early 50s, to Henri
Cartier-Bresson, who took me under his wing and
would let me go out ‘shooting’ with him.
In post-war France, a woman walking around with
a big Rolleiflex camera was not an everyday sight,
so Cartier-Bresson had a perfect decoy for his
street photography. While he was walking around
with his little Leica camera pressed up to his eye
under his wide-brimmed hat, people were looking
at me. From that moment on, I took my cue from
him, and I always dressed very simply so as not to
stand out in a crowd when taking photographs.
Cartier-Bresson became a very dear, family friend.
I regret not having taken more photographs of
him, but he did not like to be photographed and
I believe photographers have that in common.
We are happier behind the lens than in front of it.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Home
Appliance Exhibition, Grand
Palais, Paris, c1950.
Stafford’s photograph of
Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris
accompanies John Berger’s
personal obituary to the great
street photographer in The
Observer UK, 8 August, 2004.
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Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), Paris, c1950. French photographer, world renowned pioneer of street photography, and co-founder of Magnum Photos in 1947. 35

Tristan Tzara (1896-1963) Romanian-French avant-garde poet, one of the founders of the
anti-establishment Dada Movement. Paris, c1950.

36

Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Swiss architect and city planner, Paris c1950. Le Corbusier was committed to providing better living conditions for the residents of
crowded cities. He is celebrated for many extensive projects, including the creation of the master plan for the city of Chandigarh in India.

37

Stafford’s series on American actress Jean Seberg in Paris makes the front page Jean Seberg, American actress, Paris, 1959. Icon of Nouvelle Vague cinema in the late 50s,
and two inside double-page spreads in Continental Key magazine, December most notably Jean-Luc Goddard’s À Bout de Souffle (1960).
1959-January 1960.

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39

MODELS IN THE STREET

For a while I worked in Fashion Public Relations, which
included taking photographs. I did not enjoy studio
photography and photographed the models in ordinary
Paris streets, artists’ ateliers, and away from the elegant
backgrounds of the Haute Couture.
Paris has always been famous for Haute-Couture, or ‘high
fashion’ houses where exceptionally creative designers made
clothes to measure for women of high social status and
wealth. Fashion photography echoed the lives of the women
wearing its clothes – models posing in luxurious salons,
ballrooms and elegant gardens.
Because of my experiences doing street photography,
I found that I much preferred what life around me offered as
a backdrop. An article by the fashion editor of Le Figaro once
called me a ‘reverse snob’ for bringing my models out onto the
streets, which I found very amusing.

Marilyn, with model at end of shoot, Paris, c1955.

40

Model in Ready-to-Wear, having fun at the end of the fashion shoot, Louvre, Paris, c1955 41

42 Model in Ready-to-Wear, with dog, Passerelle des Arts, Paris, c1955. ‘Models get stroppy at times and this dog was no exception.’

Model in Ready-to-Wear, Place De Furstenberg, Paris, c1955. 43

44 Model in Ready-to-Wear with children, Montmartre, Paris, c1955. ‘Children on the streets of Paris always followed me around to get in on the act.’

Model in Ready-to-Wear, Place Vendome,
Paris, c1955. ‘The absence of heavy traffic

made it easy to shoot in Paris streets’.

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‘Stafford was happy to cross the borders of genres. Her fashion work is
full of a zesty joie de vivre which comes from her not caring too much for
convention. Some of the best pictures show the grimy street urchins she
liked to befriend, giddily trying to steal the limelight in fashion pictures.
One of them, a grumpy little girl in a stripy dress, has been perched
unceremoniously on the railings of one of those endless staircases in
Montmartre. That one is not trying to steal anything: she’s just holding on,
seemingly forever, while the model emotes over a comically huge reticule.
Two English boys - Derek & Dave - had passed that way earlier, and left
their unattractive signatures carved on the wall, but they missed the fun
of the shoot. You won’t forget that little girl, with her hem hitched above
’one knee, her squidgy boots, and her curious look of a much older person
than she was.
Francis Hodgson
Professor in the Culture of Photography,
University of Brighton, Co-founder of the Prix Pictet

Contact sheet: children and model in Montmartre, Paris, c1955.

Stafford’s photograph features in The Observer UK’s
‘The Big Picture’ (4 November 2018).

46

Model in Ready-to-Wear, with girl in scuffed boots, Montmartre, Paris c1955. 47

48 Model in Ready-to-Wear, with Courtin van, Paris, c1955.

Model in Ready-to-Wear, with onlooker in doorway, Paris, c1955. 49

Model in Chanel, Haute Couture, Le Louvre, Paris, c1955. Model in Givenchy dress, Haute Couture,
Arc De Triomphe, Paris, c1955.

Model in Ready-to-Wear, with jodhpurs, Paris, c1955. Model in Ready-to-Wear, with policeman, Paris, c1955.

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