Born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, photographer Bert Stern was best known for taking over
2,500 photographs of blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe over a three-day span just six weeks
before her untimely death.
Since these candid and playful shots were the last posed pictures ever taken of Monroe,
Stern's historic portfolio of the actress has come to be known as the 'The Last Sitting'.
The shoot was commissioned by Vogue and several of the photos were featured in a special commemorative
issue of the magazine following Monroe's passing.
Years later, in 1992, a book featuring these photographs along with copies of proofs which
Monroe had written on and marked with lipstick and magic marker was published as Marilyn
Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting.
While Stern was best known for his work with Monroe, in the decades before his death in
2013, Bert was lucky enough to have worked with numerous high-profile stars such as Bridgette
Bardot, Marlon Brando, Audrey Hepburn, Louis Armstrong, Gary Cooper, and Drew Barrymore.
He experienced a meteoric rise to fame in the early 1960s due to his distinct minimal
approach to capturing images.
Some of his earliest clients were corporations like IBM, Vogue, Revlon, and Smirnoff, but
it would be his portraits of celebrities that would transform him into one of the most celebrated
photographers of his time.
Starn believed that the only boundaries in life are the ones that you make.
Sticking to this philosophy, he went on to show the world the full potential of conceptual
power that photos can have in print media and advertising.
Join Facts Verse as we take a look at some of Bert Stern's finest works.
In this video, you'll see numerous rare photographs of Old Hollywood stars from Bert's private
collection.
"The Last Sitting"
It was in the summer of 1962 that Bert Stern snapped more than 2,500 shots of Marilyn Monroe
at a Los Angeles hotel over three sessions.
The famed images captured Marilyn at times in a somewhat broody mood, but overall she
seemed playful and carefree as she posed nude covered just barely by things like bedsheets,
a fur coat, a Vera Neumann scarf, and roses.
Throughout the shoot, Stern said that he felt like some kind of supernatural force was guiding
everything.
He described this force as some kind of magical element that exists within all of us since,
as he put it, 'we are all pictures...
a visual experience'
Stern would later give various accounts of what happened during the shoots.
In one, Bert claimed that Monroe arrived several hours late.
While she was supposed to show up in the early afternoon, she apparently came around 7 pm
and proceeded to stay with him until 7am.
After she realized that Stern wanted to shoot her in the nude, she was initially apprehensive
because of a scar on her abdomen from a recent gall bladder surgery.
The mark can be seen clearly in many of the pictures taken.
After Stern showed Vogue his first round of nude photos, he was asked to take another
set of black and white pictures of the star clothed.
It was these shots that the magazine ultimately printed in September 1962.
After the shoots were over, Bert sent Marilyn the photos that he had taken of her printed
on contact sheets under the stipulation that she would return them.
When the images were returned, Marilyn had used a magic marker, lipstick, and a hairpin
to X out images that she didn't feel reflected the picture she had of herself.
As previously mentioned, these were some of the last photographs ever taken of the young
star.
Just three weeks after they were taken, Monroe was found dead from an apparent overdose of
barbiturates in her home in Brentwood, California.
As planned, Vogue printed Stern's photos of Monroe, but under far different circumstances
than they had planned.
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And don't go anywhere just yet.
Keep watching to see several more captivating and rare celebrity pictures from Bert Stern's
private collection.
Bert Stern's High-Profile Celebrity Subjects
In 1960, Bert sat down with actor Marlon Brando – one of the first stars to sign his celebrity
guestbook.
Before that, Stern had worked primarily as a photographer in advertising.
One of his first contracts was for a photoshoot with Smirnoff Vodka, a company that had previously
solely relied on illustrations to promote their product.
Sterns's conceptual photographs were warmly received and helped launch his lifelong photography
career.
Here's a photo that Stern took for Smirnoff of Harpo Marx in 1959 and another of Buster
Keaton in a cowboy outfit from 1958.
Also, in 1958, Stern shot and directed the documentary film Jazz on a Summer's Day on
location at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island.
The documentary's cinematography, simplistic lighting, and overall style was a big hit
with audiences and critics alike.
Filmmakers like Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese would later cite the film as inspiration for
their own works.
During the production of that film, Stern took a number of photos of the Jazz legend
Louis Armstrong.
1958 was also the year that this Polaroid of Salvador Dali was taken.
The famed artist wrote on the book pictured with a grease pencil while instructing Stern
to hold it tight.
In the late 50's, Stern also got the chance to work with Burl Ives and Mort Sahl, as seen
in these two pictures for Polaroid.
In 1960, Stern had the honor of photographing the lovely Brigitte Bardot.
That same year, Bardot appeared in the Henri-Georges Clouzot-directed French drama film The Truth,
which went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1961.
In 1960, Shirley MacLaine was photographed by Stern and signed his guestbook with a note
saying that while she saw everything as an illusion, somehow Stern made it all seem real.
These images of MacLaine taken by Stern were published in an Esquire-magazine calendar
published in 1961 titled 'Ye Old Esquire Almanack'.
Here's a picture of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in 1962.
Stern was at the time hired as a photographer by 20th Century Fox to document the filming
of their unprecedentedly expensive feature film Cleopatra.
The movie's production was characterized by its exorbitantly expensive sets and costumes,
numerous delays, and the scandal caused by Taylor's extramarital affair with her co-star.
Because of all of these factors and the media storm that surrounded the film and its stars,
Life magazine proclaimed Cleopatra the 'Most Talked About Movie Ever Made'.
Although many anticipated that Taylor and Burton's scandalous love affair would be short-lived,
Stern claimed that he had foreseen just how deep the two-star's romance would ultimately
run.
Burton married Taylor on the 15th of March 1964.
A decade later, they divorced but would remarry on October 10, 1975.
Unfortunately, their second marriage lasted a little under a year.
Their second divorce was finalized on July 29, 1976
Bert Stern and the legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick were close friends dating back to
their early days working for Look Magazine.
Stern held his first job as a mail boy for the magazine, while Kubrick worked as a staff
photographer.
In 1961, while Kubrick was filming Lolita, he asked Stern to take a series of publicity
photos of actress Sue Lyon.
This picture of Lyon suggestively enjoying a lollipop would prove to be one Stern's most
iconic.
Stern Put Women On A Pedestal
Here we have a photo of Madonna published in Vanity Fair in 1987.
Around this time, Stern was quoted as saying that women are everything while man is 'just
a muscle'.
This sentiment was reminiscent of a previous quote from Stern in which he referred to women
as goddesses and men as their slaves.
Stern would also be quoted as saying that being a woman must be very difficult as they
end up experiencing the world on the 'inside'.
Men, on the other hand, look at the 'outside'.
He described this illusion as being 'delicious', while adding that when you 'break that mask',
then you open up another world.
While these views might just sound like the musings of an artist whose deeply immersed
in their work, it's clear that Bert Stern held a strong appreciation and reverence for
the opposite sex.
Throughout his career, the women that he worked with had nothing but positive things to say
about their experiences in front of his camera.
It was this intense respect that Stern had for his subjects that allowed him to capture
their intrinsic beauty.
Take this 1962 shot of Sophia Loren for example – or this one of Liz Taylor captured that
same year.
Stern would later say that working with Taylor was always a bit difficult.
As such, his approach to shooting her was very simple.
"I don't fool around with Liz Taylor.
I take my picture and I leave"
This photo of Barbra Streisand was taken in 1966.
That year, the singer released her seventh studio album 'Color Me Barbra' on Columbia
Records.
The record peaked at number 3 on the US albums charts and was certified Gold.
It was accompanied by a CBS TV special which aired in color on March 30, 1966.
This was also right around the time that Streisand was venturing out into film.
In 1968, she would appear in the critically acclaimed film Funny Girl which won her an
Academy Award for Best Actress.
If you take a look at a list of all of Bert Stern's subjects, it reads like a 'who's who'
of stars that were on the top of the world at the time.
Here's a beautiful snapshot that he took of Goldie Hawn in 1965.
Not long after her session with Stern, Hawn would rise to fame, appearing on the NBC sketch
comedy show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in before giving an Award-winning Academy performance
in the 1969 film Cactus Flower.
Bert Stern remained very active up until his death in 2013.
His photography was far more than just his passion – it was his entire life.
Part of what made him so wonderful at what he did was his obsession about things.
Right around the point in his career that he took this photo of Drew Barrymore in 1994,
he explained that he often got obsessed by the things he looked at.
After seeing them, he wanted them.
And when he put them in his camera, they became all his.
Bert Stern was one of the most prolific and accomplished stars of his day.
Very few photographers end up becoming as famous as their subjects, but his name is
one that is synonymous with his distinct yet simplistic style.
It didn't hurt that he also held the honor of photographing one of the most famous actresses
and public figures of the 20th century just weeks before her shocking death.
Marilyn Monroe may have given Stern's career a boost, but by that time he had already gotten
the chance to work with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.
Did you know that Bert Stern was one of the last photographers to capture photos of Marilyn
Monroe before her overdose death in 1962, and did you know that he is often credited
with transforming the way that the advertising industry promoted their products?
Let us know in the comments.
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