This is a big picture book as per the title and previous volumes of this series have included JFK and Grace Kelly.The books are stunning with big full page pictures of the subjects.
The Marilyn book has a nice blend of rare images and classic poses, there’s childhood images, some of which were recently published in Michelle Morgan’s book, and it goes right through the spectrum of photographers Marilyn worked with including George Barris, Bert Stern, Eve Arnold, Sam Shaw, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Philippe Halsman.
Curiously and perhaps disapointingly, there’s no works by David Conover, and only one credit to Andre De Dienes and Milton Greene who were all important photographers in Marilyn’s life. The Andre credit is a Picture Post cover and Milton’s one picture was taken at the 1955 benifit in aid of arthritis, so it’s not a typical Milton Greene photo. But then their works have had exposure in their own books, although Conover’s aren’t seen so readily available and this would have been a great outlet for them.
There’s a brief 5 page biography at the start of the book. Most of it isn’t very flattering to Marilyn and I feel it’s a bit out of place in an otherwise lovely book. I don’t know whether he has translated this from the original French text (it was first published in France), but it’s like he’s pasted together his account or his views of her life and work based on magazine clippings that are a bit gossipy and negative towards Marilyn.
Basically going on about how awful she was to work with, how bad she was at acting and that she wasn’t quite in the same league as Elizabeth Taylor or Audrey Hepburn and that sheonly had herself to blame etc etc This spoils the book for me. I think that there’s nothing wrong with being critical of someone but when it becomes brutal then that’s another matter!!
However, the text is only on the first 5 pages and not really important to the book. Most people probably wouldn’t even read it be honest.The book itself is really lovely, coffee table style, that you can just pick up and look at randomly. And it has some rare shots that you don’t often see published or published in other Marilyn books so it’s a worthwhile addition to any collection.
By Fraser Penney
