Inge Morath, Vintage Magnum Press Photograph Arthur Miller with Saul Steinberg Mask Photo, 1962

Vintage Magnum press photo. Shot in the 60’s by Inge Morath, printed in the 80’s.
Arthur Miller peers out from Saul Steinberg mask. (with Marilyn Monroe hiding? )

Inge Morath was an Austrian-born American photographer. In 1953, she joined the Magnum Photos Agency, founded by top photographers in Paris, and became a full photographer with the agency in 1955. Morath was also the third wife of playwright Arthur Miller. Morath’s first encounter with avant-garde art was the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition organized by the Nazi Party in 1937, which sought to inflame public opinion against modern art. Morath encountered photographer Ernst Haas in post-war Vienna, and brought his work to Trabant’s attention. Working together for Heute, Morath wrote articles to accompany Haas’ pictures. In 1949, Morath and Haas were invited by Robert Capa to join the newly founded Magnum Photos in Paris, where she started as an editor. Working with contact sheets sent into the Magnum office by founding member Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Morath’s achievements during her first decade of work as a photographer are significant. Along with Eve Arnold, she was among the first women members of Magnum Photos, which remains to this day a predominantly male organization. Morath sought out, befriended, and photographed artists and writers. During the 1950s she photographed artists for Robert Delpire’s magazine L’Oeil, including Jean Arp and Alberto Giacometti. She met the artist Saul Steinberg in 1958. When she went to his home to make a portrait, Steinberg came to the door wearing a mask which he had fashioned from a paper bag. Over a period of several years, they collaborated on a series of portraits, inviting individuals and groups of people to pose for Morath wearing Steinberg’s masks.