Dancing with Marilyn Monroe

I met Else during the few days she was visiting London. When she told me she’d been dancing since the age of four, I suggested Southbank Centre as our location. I also knew that the BFI had this giant portrait of Marilyn Monroe on display. Marilyn is someone I’ve come to admire deeply the more I’ve learned about her and her dedication to her craft, despite being so often underestimated by critics and intellectuals.
It all came together beyond my expectations. Else’s presence, her movements and her grace brought the brutalist architecture and the blue hour to life. In our final setup, with Marilyn watching over the scene, I felt the two women shared a subtle but moving dialogue across the frames.

Quite sadly, being born in a country governed by Islamic laws, dance was largely absent from my life. That makes it an even greater joy to see it finding its way into this project, reshaping it in ways I hadn’t anticipated.
By the end of this shoot, dusk was disappearing fast. My trusty f/2.8 standard zoom, which had served us well all day, was no longer gathering enough light. The flash I carry to these shoots is there to complement the ambient light, not replace it. So I had already started thinking it was time to let Else get on with her evening.
Then I remembered that, almost as an afterthought, I’d packed my favourite fast lens in my already-too-heavy bag.
Switching to the prime lens gave us two extra stops of light—four times as much light, in fact—allowing me to see her movements through the viewfinder again. Just as importantly, it was a focal length I know almost instinctively. Else, being the generous professional she is, simply smiled and encouraged me to take my time while I reset everything and re-imagined the frame.
Those final few minutes produced some of my favourite photographs from the entire shoot.
Thank you, Else. It turns out there were so many beautiful images hiding in the fading light—they were just waiting for one last performance from you, and my 35mm f/1.4 lens!

From the series Here We Are.
Southbank, London.