Marlene

“Glamour is what I sell,” Marlene Dietrich once said. “It’s my stock in trade.”

For decades this iconic actress and singer commanded global attention as a thrilling enigma whose allure would transcend time. Marlene, a collaboration between ACC Art Books and Iconic Images, is a tribute to a mesmerising 20th-century talent whose influence is still felt today.
Featuring images both world-famous and those never-before-seen, six renowned photographers – Eve Arnold, Terry O’Neill, Norman Parkinson, Douglas Kirkland, Eugene Robert Richee and Lawrence Fried – showcase their work, including on-set moments, intimate shoots, one-off encounters and striking portraits of one of the most famous actresses of all time. Accompanied by the stories behind those prints, this book also includes an essay covering early images of Dietrich, curated by the former head of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, Terence Pepper OBE. The historical sweep and stylistic variety of these photographs creates a rich visual tableau, shedding light on Dietrich’s famously mysterious character, which combined the sultry cabaret singer, the fierce patriot, the lover, the mother, and the independent thinker.