In 1966, Sereny began teaching herself to be a professional photographer after her husband was in a nearly fatal automobile accident. A friend on the
Italian Olympic Committee hired her to document some of the sports facilities being developed to support Italy's athletes. Having received positive feedback at home, she decided to test how good they were by taking them and herself to
The Times in London. They were published, a film publicist she knew back in Rome helped her get access for two weeks on the set of
Mike Nichols’
Catch-22 (1970), and her career was launched. The combination of celebrity subjects and wide distribution internationally has made many of her images iconic. Her skill, on the one hand, and her friendship with many of these celebrities, meant that she was also able to get spontaneous shots, including a notable one, taken shortly before
Richard Burton and
Elizabeth Taylor divorced, that captures their feelings at the time. It was the first film she was hired to work on; she was there, she told
The Guardian, "to do ad hoc background shots, capturing rehearsals and that kind of thing," and she "had to be a fly on the wall. I’d hide behind people and avoid wearing bright colours, so as to pass unnoticed." a short British film featuring Michael Palin for which she won a
BAFTA; and
Foreign Student (1994), a feature-length American production starring
Robin Givens. Sereny also directed commercials, but in her 40s she found herself being passed over for less experienced men and was told by a Hollywood agency that being an older woman was an obstacle. She stopped working as a professional photographer in 2004. In 2018 Sereny published
Through Her Lens: The Stories Behind the Photography of Eva Sereny, a collection of nearly 100 photos complemented by Sereny's stories of their origins, with an introduction by Bisset and Rampling. In conjunction with this publication an exhibition of her portraits was held at a London art gallery. == Family ==