The extraordinary career of the photographer Marilyn Stafford began by accident with her first portrait: a grainy picture of a smiling Albert Einstein taken in his home in 1948.

Stafford, who has died aged 97, had never used a 35mm camera before and admitted she had “no idea what I was doing” as she accompanied two friends to interview the Nobel prizewinning physicist. “All I was aware of was that I had to focus and click the shutter,” she said.