Much Ado about Women
A day out in London took me first to see the new Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, followed by a brief wander through Tate Modern before ending the day at the Globe for a glorious production of Much Ado About Nothing. First, the Monroe exhibition which was extensive, organised by her life story and relationships with different photographers over the years including Philip Hausman, Cecil Beaton and her close collaborator for on-set photography, Eve Arnold. It was interesting how closely she curated her image, having control over which proofs got to see the light of day and which were banished (until now) to obscurity by Monroe's pen through the image. Ironic how that control vanished after her death. There were plenty of stories about her being difficult and fighting with the studios, but it is interesting to see how many of them were her not wanting to be put in the dumb blonde box. Her story is so well known but there were plenty of pho...