Ben Ross
Marilyn Monroe (Icon), Hollywood, 1953
André De Dienes
Norma Jeane (Marilyn Monroe), California, 1945
André de Dienes was born in Transylvania and became a successful fashion photographer in New York, shooting for Harper’s Bazaar, VOGUE, and Town & Country. After feeling increasingly stifled by his commercial career, de Dienes began travelling and photographing around the country before eventually moving to Los Angeles. In 1945, a model agent asked de Dienes to meet a hopeful 19 year old model named Norma Jeane Baker.
De Dienes photographed her for the next several days and continued to photograph her for the rest of her life, documenting her eventual transformation into a superstar.
André De Dienes
Norma Jeane (Marilyn Monroe), California, 1945
André De Dienes
Marilyn Monroe on the patio of her bungalow at the Bel Air Hotel, Los Angeles, 1953
Slim Aarons
Fan Mail: Marilyn Monroe sorts out her fan mail shortly after her film “The Asphalt Jungle” had been released, 1952
Slim Aarons was not supposed to photograph Marilyn that day . . . another photographer was double booked and asked if he would cover for him and Slim reluctantly agreed. Marilyn was relatively unknown at the time (which is why the photographer passed on the job). The letters and negligée were borrowed from the studio prop department for the picture – although prescient, they aren’t true fan letters.
Aarons remembered, “She was very nervous about posing, and I reassured her by telling her that all you had to do was think about the nicest possible thing that could happen to you—but think about it with your eyes, and let the rest of your face do what it wanted”.
Cecil Beaton
Marilyn Monroe, New York, 1956
Marilyn turned up almost 2 hours late for her photo session with Cecil Beaton at the Ambassador Hotel in New York. Nevertheless, Beaton was captivated by the contradictions in her guilelessness and sophistication and later wrote “The puzzling truth is that Miss Monroe is a make-believe siren, unsophisticated as a Rhine maiden, innocent as a sleepwalker. She is an urchin pretending to be grown up, having the time of her life in her mother’s moth-eaten finery, tottering about in high-heeled shoes and sipping ginger ale as if it were a champagne cocktail.”
Although they met only once, Marilyn reportedly kept one of the photographs from this session in a silver frame at her bedside until she died.
Milton Greene
Marilyn Monroe, Black Sitting, 1956
Elliott Erwitt
Marilyn Monroe on the set of 'The Seven Year Itch', New York City, 1954
The producer of The Seven Year Itch asked photographer Sam Shaw to create the advertising image for the film. Inspired by a Friday Magazine cover image that he had previously shot in 1941, Shaw took advantage of the night shoot over a subway grate on Lexington Avenue and 51st street in New York and produced one of the most famous moments ever caught on film. While Shaw shot the photographs that were used by the film to promote it, thousands of onlookers and many additional photographers showed up (including Elliott Erwitt, who took this particular photograph) and the conditions were so chaotic that the scene had to be re-shot on a painstakingly created soundstage on Los Angeles.
George Barris
Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood Hills, 1962
Perhaps surprisingly, Marilyn was often photographed reading and was by all accounts a voracious reader. Over 400 books were found in her home when she died, including works by Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Walt Whitman, and D.H. Lawrence, and she was apparently friendly with several writers including Carson McCullers, Karen Blixen, and Truman Capote. George Sanders, who starred with Marilyn in All About Eve, recalled her reading poetry on set and found her conversation had unexpected depths, noting “She showed an interest in intellectual subjects which was, to say the least, disconcerting.” Despite her work ethic and achievements at self-education, Marilyn seemed to have realized that, to many, her efforts were a joke. “If you are ignorant, books won’t laugh at you”, she once said.
André De Dienes
Marilyn Monroe, California, 1946
André De Dienes
Marilyn Monroe, Tobay Beach, New York, 1949
In 1949, Marilyn filmed one of her first screen credits with a tiny part in Love Happy, a film starring Groucho Marx. Upon arriving to her first ever trip to New York City that summer to publicize the film, she called de Dienes and suggested that they spend a day together and take pictures. After they arrived at Jones Beach (about 30 miles outside of Manhattan), they discovered that the beach was too crowded to work. Luckily, a lightning storm cleared the beach and when de Dienes and Monroe returned in the afternoon, the beach was nearly deserted and they continued shooting for the rest of the day.
De Dienes remembered “The photographs I took of her that day represented a young Marilyn. The poses are casual . . . I even liked her hair to be all messed up. But her image as a movie star became different . . . created at the Hollywood studios, done by hairdressers, make-up men, etc. The day after we took these pictures, Marilyn gave the first interview of her career. The press literally mobbed her. And from that day onward, her name was mentioned almost every day in the newspapers all over the world – the craze for Marilyn Monroe had started!”
André De Dienes
Marilyn Monroe, California, 1946
Sam Shaw
Marilyn Monroe sitting on a bench in Central Park, New York City, 1957
Photographer Sam Shaw became friends with Marilyn Monroe on the set of Elia Kazan’s film Viva Zapata! in 1950. She was largely unknown at the time and had tried, but failed, to get a part in the film – even though she was in a relationship with Kazan. They remained friends and Shaw continued to photograph her countless times and throughout both of her marriages to baseball player Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller.
Shaw asked Marilyn to “improvise” the photograph on the New York park bench. “The young man sitting next to me was proposing marriage to her”, Marilyn told Shaw later. “The woman told him he’d have to give up gambling and stop working as a bookie.” After they finished, Marilyn introduced herself, asked them for permission to use the photos, and wished them the best of luck.
Sam Shaw
Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, New York, 1957
Ed Feingersh
Marilyn Monroe on the subway at Grand Central Station, New York, 1955
In 1955, Marilyn left Hollywood and moved to New York, abandoning her contract with 20th Century Fox and forming a production company with Milton Greene. She also began psychoanalysis and to learn method acting with Lee Strasberg at The Actor’s Studio. Although her intention to remain relatively anonymous in New York was largely successful, Greene and Marilyn also agreed that some publicity pictures would be beneficial. Photographer Ed Feingersh was hired to document Marilyn’s “daily life”, although most agree that it was probably the first and last time that she took the subway.
Sam Shaw
Marilyn Monroe, Amagansett, New York, 1957
Jock Carroll
Just Strolling: Marilyn Monroe, 1953
Sam Shaw
Marilyn Monroe with her dog Hugo, Amagansett, NY, 1957
André De Dienes
Marilyn Monroe (A Study in Sadness), 1955
“One late night, Marilyn phoned me and said she couldn’t sleep. She proposed that we go take pictures of her somewhere in a dark alley in Beverly Hills. She would pose sad and lonely! I hopped out of bed and we went to take pictures all night long. I had no flashlight so I lit Marilyn with the headlights of my car! Was she just playing a melodrama in those pictures, or was she conscious that something was wrong in her life or that something tragic would happen to her?”
- André de Dienes
Milton Greene
Marilyn Monroe, 'Ballerina' Sitting, New York City, 1954
Milton Greene was a successful fashion and portrait photographer for Harper’s Bazaar and VOGUE when he first met and photographed Marilyn in 1953 for Look Magazine. In addition to countless photo sessions, Greene and Marilyn became so close that Marilyn actually moved in with Greene and his family for 2 years and they even formed a production company together.
In 1999, TIME Magazine named the Ballerina Sitting photograph as one of the top three most famous photographs of the 20th Century.
Allan Grant
Marilyn Monroe, July 7th, 1962
Sam Shaw
Marilyn Monroe with producer Darryl Zanuck, actor David Wayne, photographer Milton Greene, playwright Sidney Kingsley, and newspaper columnist Leonard Lyons, 1954
Unknown Photographer
Marilyn Monroe on "Person to Person", 1955
Ben Ross
Marilyn Monroe (With Photo-journalists), Atlantic City, NJ, 1952
Lawrence Schiller
Marilyn Monroe, 1962
Lawrence Schiller photographed Marilyn Monroe on the set of the film Something’s Got to Give on June 1, 1962 – her 36th (and final) birthday.
Due to multiple conflicts and publicity issues, Marilyn was then fired from the film. Her co-star Dean Martin refused to work with anyone else, and she was eventually rehired, given a raise, and returned to the set. Marilyn died only a few weeks later, still in the process of shooting her scenes, and the film was never completed.
Marilyn would have celebrated her 100th birthday this year.
Sam Shaw
Marilyn Monroe backstage with her husband Joe DiMaggio and actor David Wayne, 1954
Eve Arnold
Marilyn Monroe Studio shot during the filming of "The Misfits", 1960
Early in the 1950s, Marilyn saw a photo-article by Eve Arnold in Esquire magazine and was impressed. The subject was Marlene Dietrich and when Monroe met the photographer at a party in New York, she said to Arnold: “If you could do that well with Marlene, can you imagine what you could do with me?”
When Arnold came to photograph Marilyn on the set of John Huston’s film The Misfits in 1960, she found Marilyn in a troubled state. Her marriage to the film’s writer Arthur Miller was crumbling, she was drinking heavily, and she had trouble remembering her lines. (The Misfits would be Marilyn’s – and her co-star Clark Gable’s – final completed film.). Arnold remembered “My most poignant memory of Marilyn is of how distressed, troubled and still radiant she looked when I arrived in Nevada. It occurred to me then that when she had lived with the fantasy of Marilyn that she had created, that fantasy had sustained her, but now the reality had caught up with her and she found it too much to bear.”
While many male photographers were captivated by Marilyn’s sensuality, Arnold’s photographs of Marilyn are notable for their tenderness and intimacy. As Arnold said, “If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.”
Milton Greene
Marilyn Monroe, The Wicker Series, 1953
Philippe Halsman
Marilyn Jumping, 1959
In the 1950’s, photographer Philippe Halsman began to ask his sitters to jump at the end of their portrait sittings. “When you ask a person to jump,” Halsman wrote, “their attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping, and the mask falls, so that the real person appears.” Halsman recalled asking Marilyn “to try and express (her) character a little more”. Monroe responded, “You mean my jump shows my character?”
Richard Avedon
Marilyn Monroe, New York City, 1957
In 1954, photographer Sam Shaw introduced Marilyn Monroe to Richard Avedon and Avedon later photographed her several times.
Avedon recalled this 1957 portrait session: “For hours she danced and sang and flirted and did this thing that’s - she did Marilyn Monroe. And then there was the inevitable drop. And when the night was over and the white wine was over and the dancing was over, she sat in the corner like a child, with everything gone. I saw her sitting quietly without expression on her face, and I walked towards her but I wouldn’t photograph her without her knowledge of it. And as I came with the camera, I saw that she was not saying no.”
Sam Shaw
Marilyn Monroe at the '21' Club, New York City, 1954
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From “The Last Sitting®”, 1962 (Crucifix III)
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From “The Last Sitting®”, 1962 (Crucifix II)
Bert Stern
Bert Stern and Marilyn Monroe: From "The Last Sitting®", 1962
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From “The Last Sitting®", (Black Dress, VOGUE), 1962
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From “The Last Sitting®", (Black dress, looking over shoulder), 1962
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From “The Last Sitting®", (Black dress, laughing), 1962
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From "The Last Sitting®", 1962 (Blue Roses)
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From "The Last Sitting®", 1962 (Yellow Roses)
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From "The Last Sitting®", 1962 (Purple Roses)
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From "The Last Sitting®", 1962
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From "The Last Sitting®", 1962 (Contact Sheet)
Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe: From "The Last Sitting, 1962” (Avant-Garde Magazine)
From 1968 through 1971, 14 issues of a graphic design-focused magazine called Avant-Garde were published. The magazine had a small circulation but was very popular in New York art and design circles. Bert Stern’s famous photographs of Marilyn Monroe from “The Last Sitting” were included in one issue. Stern became very interested in the rotogravure printing process used to print the magazine and he was allowed to use the printer to do some experimental prints.
These rotogravure prints were made with many different combinations of colors and so therefore many are unique. They were not printed in a limited edition but very few prints were signed by Bert Stern before his death in 2013.
Ed Pfizenmaier
Marilyn Monroe being photographed by Cecil Beaton, New York, 1956
Cecil Beaton
Marilyn Monroe (Contact Sheet), New York, 1956
Ed Pfizenmaier
Marilyn Monroe being photographed by Cecil Beaton, New York, 1956
Sam Shaw
Marilyn Monroe and Richard Avedon on the set of "The Seven Year Itch", 1954
Steve McCurry
Two Icons, Los Angeles, 2007
Patrick Demarchelier
Madonna, 1990
Amy Gaskin
The Black Marilyn - “You’ll Be Surprised how many Black women love Marilyn.” - Saviyance, 2023
After photojournalist Amy Gaskin learned that Marilyn Monroe’s crypt was very close to her apartment in Los Angeles, she visited it and was shocked to find wet lipstick kisses and fresh flowers indicating constant visitors - even during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Gaskin began to visit daily and interviewed and photographed those she met. She familiarized herself with fan clubs devoted to Marilyn, absorbing their members’ stories and learning how Marilyn’s life had become a symbol of hope to them.
Gaskin noted, “I thought I’d find a mostly older male crowd attracted to her beauty . . . Instead, the connection is profound and encompasses all ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities”. Marilyn’s reputation for kindness and acceptance made many view her as a civil rights icon for marginalized communities. Gaskin photographed the pin-up artist Saviyance Monroe (uncannily and probably unintentionally mimicking Madonna’s own homage to Marilyn as photographed by Patrick Demarchelier), who said “You’ll be surprised by how many black women love Marilyn. Marilyn was one of the first people to help Ella Fitzgerald get a performing job. I love that she used her privilege for something good.”
Amy Gaskin
She’s a Symbol of Hope — 500 Marilyns!, 2023
Gaskin pursued the project beyond California, even going all the way to Australia to take this photograph of over 500 men and women about to swim in the ocean dressed as Marilyn to raise money for cancer research. As she noted, “Even in death, Marilyn seems to have a power that is healing”.
Frank Powolny
Marilyn Monroe, 1952
It was rumored that Andy Warhol intended to use one of Bert Stern’s photographs for his famous series of silkscreens of Marilyn before deciding that Stern and the images were too famous. Instead, Warhol chose a simple photograph by longtime 20th Century Fox studio photographer Frank Powolny that was originally used as a publicity picture for Monroe’s 1953 film Niagara.
David LaChapelle
Amanda as Andy Warhol's Marilyn in Blue, 2007
Almost 50 years later, David LaChapelle created an homage to Warhol’s work with his friend Amanda Lepore, a transgender model and performance artist who credited Marilyn as a notable influence on her own hyper-feminized and exaggerated look.