Bert Stern: Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting

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repeatedly gets off on describing her as "childlike" and "vulnerable", so far as comparing it to spying on his 12 year old girl next door as a teenager

The Last Sitting is a book and photo shoot of Marilyn Monroe by photographer Bert Stern. The photo shoot was commissioned by Vogue magazine in late June 1962, taking place over three daily sessions, just six weeks before she died.Even when people come to see me talk, they have certain set notions," Kannamma told AFP. "It is only when they hear what I have to say and see me in person that they can get past the fact that I am a transgender."

stands over her as it makes him feel powerful while she's reluctant and distant, then shouts at the crew for someone to "turn her on" With a line like that, there is no wonder he was able to pull the desire right out of Marilyn and onto the lens of his camera. Bert Stern was born on October 3 in Brooklyn, NY. He was a whopping age of 33 when he got this break-of-a-lifetime. What did the movie star's voice sound like in person? "Her voice was more normal," Stern remembers. "I think 'Marilyn Monroe' is a character she created. That voice was exaggerated. She was a riot. I haven't seen anyone except people imitating her have that. And no one can imitate her properly." I was going to photograph Marilyn Monroe. All I had to do was figure out how to get what I wanted: pure Marilyn, nude. But I didn’t know how to approach her with that idea… Maybe the only way I was going to get it was through illusion: screens, veils. So, I went to Vogue and said, “Can you get me some scarves? Scarves you can see through – with geometrics. And jewelry.” Jewelry doesn’t need too many clothes, right?”

Bert Stern was the last person to photograph Marilyn Monroe before she died, 39 years ago this month. An exclusive interview with Salon.

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean, on June 1 in Los Angeles, California. She had just turned 36 at the time of the photo shoot.

The photo shoot is the culmination of a fantasy and a love affair. Bert Stern had idolized Marilyn Monroe since he met her at a party for the Actor’s Studio in 1955. He now finally had the opportunity to photograph Monroe and so great was his infatuation with the actress, that he referred to setting up his photo shoot as, “preparing for Marilyn’s arrival like a lover, and yet I was here to take photographs. Not to take her into my arms, but to turn her into tones…” This book presents the complete set of 2,571 photos. The monumental body of work by the master photographer and the Hollywood actress marks a climax in the history of star photography, both in quantity and quality. It is a unique affirmation of the erotic dimension of photography and the eroticism of taking photos, and it is the world's finest and largest tribute to Marilyn Monroe. As Stern writes in The Last Sitting: “There were two Bert Sterns. One was the Bert Stern who had been accused of playing it close to the edge… Who had married his first wife with his fingers crossed…who thought his second, real marriage was over six months after it began…who had an appointment with blond destiny. That Bert Stern would gamble everything he had for a night with Marilyn Monroe. The other was Bert Stern, husband father, provider photographer who was going to get the picture, get out of there, go home to his wife and baby, and live happily ever after.”

Just a few days after India's Supreme Court recognized a "third gender" option, a transgender woman in India is vying for a seat in parliament. By the time of the shoot, Bert Stern had already developed a name for himself as a fashion and advertisement superstar photographer. Born to a “medium-poor Brooklyn family”, he worked as a Vogue photographer, and stood out through an inventive and audacious approach towards his work; For a Smirnoff Vodka ad campaign, he traveled to Egypt and shot what would become a highly successful commercial image of the ‘The Driest of the Dry’ Martini.

Bert Stern was a 32-year-old, red-blooded Brooklyn-born boy and he was going to ball Marilyn Monroe. Yes, sir! It was 1962. Stern was cruising the streets of L.A. in a pink Thunderbird convertible, a case of '53 Dom Perignon in the trunk. Bubbly for Marilyn. Earlier, Stern had reserved them Suite 261 at the Bel-Air Hotel. He planned to get Marilyn drunk and coax her to drop her clothes and then ... He wanted to make love with her, but there was the job he'd come to L.A. to do -- to take Monroe's photograph for Vogue magazine. "Making love and making photographs were closely connected in my mind when it came to women," he would later write. Bert Stern's portraits of Marilyn Monroe were collected in a book entitled The Last Sitting. Photograph: Bert Stern/courtesy Staley-Wise Gallery New YorkMarch, 1962: Vogue arranges a shoot in Los Angeles and Bert does presumably what any man would do had they been allowed an intimate day and night with Marilyn Monroe. He had reserved them a suite at the Bel-Air Hotel; for the art of photography, of course. Although Bert later writes, "making love and making photographs were closely connected in my mind when it came to women,” which makes me question how appropriate this "professional" day actually was. Oh, to be a fly on the wall. On the theatrical release of a remarkably candid and revealing feature-length documentary on his life, Bert Stern: Original Mad Man, TIME sat down with Stern at his New York apartment to talk about his passions (women and photography), advertising, inspiration and Marilyn. takes pride in only kissing Marilyn after she just about managed to say "no" before she passed out on the bed after a grueling day of shooting Bert Stern had taken the LAST photos of Marilyn Monroe only 6 weeks before her tragic death. This group of 2,571 captures was so special and emotionally unrestrained, that they have now become an almost eerie harbinger of her demise. Based in New York, Stern continued to shoot the most famous models, musicians and actors throughout the 80s and 90s, including Madonna and Kate Moss. He repeatedly returned to the Last Sitting photographs, which have been reprinted in many books including a Taschen publication that pairs Stern's photos with Norman Mailer's controversial 1973 biography of Monroe.