Inge Morath's first trip across the United States followed a red grease-pencil line drawn by her traveling companion, Henri Cartier-Bresson, from New York through Gettysburg, Memphis, and Albuquerque to Reno. In 1960, the two were among 18 photojournalists commissioned by Magnum to document the Nevada set of Arthur Miller's film The Misfits. The destination was a momentous one for Morath, both for her remarkable photographs on location as well as her initial encounter with Miller, whom she later married after his divorce from Marilyn Monroe. But it is Morath's documentation of the 18 days in traveling to the set, collected here in both photographs and written entries, that in its casualness as a travel diary begins to unfold her carefully observed, insightful, and compassionate approach to reportage.
About the Author
Inge Morath was born in Graz, Austria, in 1923. A friend of photographer Ernst Haas, she wrote articles to accompany his photographs and was invited to Paris with Haas by Robert Capa to join the just-founded Magnum agency as an editor. She began photographing in London in 1951, and after assisting Henri Cartier-Bresson as a researcher for two years and working independently throughout that time, became a member of the agency in 1955. Throughout her life, Morath was a prolific diarist and letter writer, and in her extensive travels in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, China and the USSR, she kept copious written entries along with her many photographs. She married Arthur Miller in 1962 and settled in New York and Connecticut, though she continued to travel and publish photographic essays, pursuing both assignments and independent projects until her death in 2002. She has won numerous awards, including being presented with a Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Connecticut, the Austrian State Prize for Photography, the Gold medal of the National Art Club, and the Medal of Honor in Gold of the City of Vienna.
