A fragmented and emotionally insecure childhood had robbed little Norma Jeane Baker of a sense of identity, and the seductive camera became a magical friend which helped her create one – Marilyn Monroe! Marilyn’s one lasting love affair was with the camera and it would also ensure that she would live forever.
For many years this book has been considered as one of the greatest anthology’s of Marilyn photos ever assembled from her professional career, from William Carroll in 1945 to the Bert Stern shots of 1962 – which, for the informed reader would tell us that the first photos by David Conover and the last by Allan Grant are not here… despite this, what we have in between more than makes up for these omissions.
The thirty-eight photographers who have contributed to the book reads like a photographers who’s who: Eve Arnold, Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Philippe Halsman, Bob Willoughby, among the familiar Marilyn photographers Andre de Dienes, Milton H. Greene, Tom Kelly, Bert Stern etc.There’s a wonderful foreword by Jane Russell, who starred alongside Marilyn in one of her most famous films, ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,’ but who had first met her as Norma Jeane, “a little thing with ash-brown hair and a very sweet smile.
“The other text in the book comes from the George Belmont interview for Marie Claire while Marilyn was film ‘Let’s Make Love.’ This gives Marilyn a chance to speak for herself. In it she talks candidly about her childhood.Since the books first inception in 1989 it has seldom been out of print and latterly has been known as ‘Silver Marilyn’ due to the cover art.
By Fraser Penney
