Magnum Photo Agency'The Body Observed Exhibition'

These are a group of photos taken by Eve Arnold in 1959 of Hollywood Legend Joan Crawford.  Eve had gained the trust of Joan in an earlier shoot, and so Joan allowed Eve to portray the huge effort of remaining at the top of her game and appearance.  These photos show a fascinating 'warts and all' insight into the various beauty treatments, massages, hair-styling, etc. that this entailed.  What struck me was that in many of the images while the beautician is at work on Joan's body, Joan is smoking a cigarette...not the best way to stay healthy and beautiful!

The whole exhibition (at the excellent Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich) was intriguing and thought-provoking and included a wide range of photos taken between the 1930's and now.  The tour guide who took us round was a photographer himself and as there was only B, H and myself with him on the tour we were able to enjoy his undivided attention and take in a lot of background information about the aims of the photographer's work.  Highly recommended if this exhibition comes your way.