Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting (Stern Portfolio)
by Bert Stern

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Book Reviews of Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting (Stern Portfolio)

Book Review: Shocked
Summary: 4 Stars

While the photographs are interesting, in my opinion some give the apprearance of the intoxicated state of Monroe during the sessions. Some of the photographs are not as high quality as I would expect. I enjoy the photographs just for the collectors value and most are interesting. I have mixed feelings, though, when a see the tragic ending of Monroe's life and her clearly vulnerable emotional state at that time. I couldn't help feel angry that a photographer would exploit that state with photo sessions filled with selfish (...)desires and alcohol.

Summary of Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting (Stern Portfolio)

In front of the camera, Marilyn was known to possess an incredible chameleon-like ability to transform herself into whatever role she was meant to play. In these pages she is goddess, siren, child, woman, femme fatale and dream date. Yet there is an air of desperation about these photos as well. In his fascinating foreword to the book. Bert Stern looks back on that momentous sitting, offering a revealing, naked portrait of Marilyn the person -- of a vulnerable, confused woman who although at the apex of her career, had relinquished control of her life -- and of the fashion world of the early 1960s, with its new openness towards drugs, sex, and art.

From the glamorous, sophisticated photos which Vogue would publish in a black-and-white "memorial" spread, to the less restrained color shots which Stern coaxed out of Marilyn during an intense, exhausting session, this collection covers nearly every aspect of modern photography: portraiture, fashion-driven, erotic, and artistic. But more than a comprehensive display of Stern's immeasurable talents, these photographs combine to create an homage to America's first goddess. A woman we invented, but whom we could never really know.

Artists, A-Z Books

• Subjects > Arts & Photography > Individual Artists
• Photography > Erotic Photography
• Photo Essays
• Portraits
• Humor & Entertainment > Movies