Italian director Federico Fellini with actor Donald Sutherland on set of the film 'Casanova' in 1976. Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, Sereny was the official Special Photographer on a line-up of films that included Visconti's Death in Venice (1972) Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (1972), and 1900 (1976) Jack Clayton's The Great Gatsby (1974) Fellini's Casanova (1976) and Steven Spielberg's series of Indiana Jones films. Sereny’s luck was still in: a few days later she found herself on the set as Special Photographer. That she went on to photograph quite so many famous subjects surely surprised her as much as anyone.Ī post shared by Elegantly Papered long after her first sporting photographs appeared in print, Sereny approached film publicist Gordon Arnell, who at the time was working on the film adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 which was being directed by Mike Nichols and shooting in Rome in 1969. He escaped with minor injuries, but the experience made Sereny realise she needed work to fall back on should she find herself a widow responsible for their two small children. Sereny had only recently taught herself photography after her husband was involved in a car accident. She was sent directly to the picture editor, who liked what he saw.

In what reads like a scene from a film, in this striking book's introduction, James Clarke writes that after receiving good feedback on the images from friends, Sereny had flown to London (she was living in Italy, where she took the photos) and boldly walked into The Times ' offices without an appointment.

Preparing For The 1980 Olympics? ran the headline of the piece in The Times on May 1, 1968. Through Her Lens: The stories behind the photography of Eva Serenyįorewords by Jacqueline Bisset and Charlotte Rampling, ACC Art BooksĮ va Sereny's celebrated career as a photographer began in the late 1960s, when she sold a series of shots she'd taken of young children participating in sport in the then newly developed Italian sports centres.

Romy in Rom by Eva Sereny