MARILYN MONROE CENTENARY, 2026

Eve and Marilyn

Intimacy as a way of seeing

Eve Arnold changed photography by making intimacy a way of seeing.

She helped move portraiture and photojournalism beyond surface appearance.

Her photographs showed that vulnerability, contradiction and private feeling could reveal something deeper about a person, a culture and a moment in history.

To mark Marilyn Monroe’s birthday and a worldwide centenary moment, the Eve Arnold Estate celebrates one of the most important collaborations in twentieth-century photography: Marilyn Monroe, seen by Eve Arnold.

A Worldwide Monroe Centenary

Eve Arnold’s photographs are part of the worldwide celebration of Marilyn Monroe’s centenary.

This year, Eve’s Monroe photographs are being seen in exhibitions and galleries across London, Los Angeles, Paris and Santa Monica, including the National Portrait Gallery, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Cinémathèque française and Peter Fetterman Gallery.

Together, these moments confirm the central place of Eve’s photographs in the visual history of Marilyn Monroe: not simply as images of an icon, but as photographs that reveal intelligence, vulnerability, performance and private thought.

The National Portrait Gallery Moment

This summer, Eve Arnold’s Monroe photographs are part of the National Portrait Gallery exhibition Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait.

The Eve Arnold prints shown in the exhibition were made by Danny Pope, Eve Arnold’s own printer and the only authorised printer of Eve Arnold Estate prints.

This is the first chapter in a carefully curated summer programme celebrating Eve Arnold and Marilyn Monroe. It begins with a limited-time A2 poster of Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses, produced by Danny Pope and available only during the run of the exhibition. Further special releases will follow later this summer.

A Limited-Time Poster by Danny Pope

To mark Marilyn Monroe’s birthday and the National Portrait Gallery exhibition Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, the Estate is releasing a limited-time A2 poster of Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses, produced by Danny Pope.

Available only during the run of the exhibition, this premium poster celebrates Eve and Marilyn’s collaboration and honours Eve’s belief that photography should remain accessible to a wider public.

It is not an editioned Estate print. It is a beautifully produced A2 poster: larger than our previous posters, full bleed, typographic and made with exceptional care by Danny Pope, Eve Arnold’s own printer.

A2 poster
Produced by Danny Pope for the Eve Arnold Estate
Available only during the NPG exhibition
£70