Beautiful Marilyn Monroe Photographed by Richard Avedon, 1957

Richard S. (rich815) · May 3, 2014

Beautiful Marilyn Monroe Photographed by Richard Avedon, 1957

What a great set of images...

http://www.shootingfilm.net/2014/04/beautiful-marilyn-monroe-photographed.html

Tom1956 · May 3, 2014

At 68 years old Jaclyn Smith is still the all-time babe.

hoffy · May 3, 2014

Pick the shot that 'Richard' pops up to say hello in the contact sheets. I actually find these more interesting then the main shots.

PS, Jaclyn Smith? What does she have to do with this?

Tom1956 · May 3, 2014

Nothing. Sorry to have seemed obtuse, as it was not my intent. I just never saw the beauty in MM. She was overweight (imo) with a rack that would have been sagging over her belt, had she lived. Jaclyn Smith will be gorgeous when she's a 90 year old woman. Some women are just that way. The OP provided an interesting post though.

hoffy · May 3, 2014

Tom1956 said:
Nothing. Sorry to have seemed obtuse, as it was not my intent. I just never saw the beauty in MM. She was overweight (imo) with a rack that would have been sagging over her belt, had she lived. Jaclyn Smith will be gorgeous when she's a 90 year old woman. Some women are just that way. The OP provided an interesting post though.

Over weight......... I'm not saying a word more.

gone · May 3, 2014

Marilyn was vulnerable and real, which is what made her so attractive, along w/ her amazing looks. Avedon was one of the greats of his time, or any time for that matter. Wonderful series of photos. Thanks Richard. The quotes from Avedon about the shoot are memorable.

benjiboy · May 3, 2014

My wife says Marilyn was a much larger lady than is fashionable these days and that different decades have their own ideal female figures, for example in the 1920's it was fashionable to be flat chested and some women used to bandage their breasts flat.

Tom1956 · May 3, 2014

I think I've developed "age progression software" in my later life to where I can look at somebody (especially women) and see the future. MM was 36 when she killed herself, so when I see pics of her I can see see would not have aged well. So maybe that's where I'm coming from, not sure. I was only 6 years old at the time.

yulia_s_rey · May 4, 2014

Tom1956 said:
MM was 36 when she killed herself, so when I see pics of her I can see see would not have aged well. So maybe that's where I'm coming from, not sure. I was only 6 years old at the time.

^From a cinematographic viewpoint, her eyes alone (not to mention her facial symmetry) would suggest otherwise had she lived longer.

Btw, great link, Avedon's work has always been a great inspiration as was Ms. Monroe's dedication to acting (How to Marry a Millionaire - is a personal favorite of mine). Two true American icons right there.

pbromaghin · May 4, 2014

Yeah, but...

What happened to so many of the prints that they are all messed up?

RalphLambrecht · May 4, 2014

Tom1956 said:
Nothing. Sorry to have seemed obtuse, as it was not my intent. I just never saw the beauty in MM. She was overweight (imo) with a rack that would have been sagging over her belt, had she lived. Jaclyn Smith will be gorgeous when she's a 90 year old woman. Some women are just that way. The OP provided an interesting post though.

I'm afraid,we have to take this outside if you say anything negative aboutMMagain

removed account4 · May 4, 2014

the closeups are lovely ..
she looks so sad

resummerfield · May 4, 2014

Thanks for posting!

shashinzukuri · Jun 10, 2014

Tom1956 said:
I just never saw the beauty in MM. She was overweight (imo) with a rack that would have been sagging over her belt, had she lived.

benjiboy said:
My wife says Marilyn was a much larger lady than is fashionable these days and that different decades have their own ideal female figures, for example in the 1920's it was fashionable to be flat chested and some women used to bandage their breasts flat.

At 5'5" and a "steady" weight of about 118 pounds (to be fair, Marilyn drove wardrobe departments crazy, and often they maintained several complete sets of clothes for her), Marilyn was far from overweight and would be perfectly at home in men's magazines today. Going off the Wikipedia entries for this year, she'd be right at home among any of them (Miss April, Shanice Jordyn, is an inch shorter and about the same weight), though she'd be noticeably curvy. You can take these next numbers with a grain of salt, of course, but she probably wouldn't be perceptibly heavier than Angelina Jolie (5'8"/~120), Halle Berry (5'5.5"/~120) or even Kate Moss (5'7"/~120).

The perception of Marilyn as a "bigger than modern" woman is mostly a hijack and a misunderstanding of the way clothes sizing has changed over the decades. People like to say she was a size 14 or 16, but in modern terms she'd be much closer to a 6 or 8. A size 16 off the department-store rack today would fit her like a tent.

Tom1956 · Jun 10, 2014

I can't say anything more about MM, or Ralph will give me a fat lip.

hoffy · Jun 11, 2014

Tom1956 said:
I can't say anything more about MM, or Ralph will give me a fat lip.

Don't worry - I am sure there is a queue forming as well

Curt · Jun 11, 2014

Just saying!

doughowk · Jun 11, 2014

In the OP's link to MM images, there seems to be missing the iconic image which Avedon talks about as taken when she let her guard down. Its in his "Woman in the Mirror" book.

shashinzukuri · Jun 11, 2014

Tom1956 said:
I can't say anything more about MM, or Ralph will give me a fat lip.

Ha! If you don't find her to your liking, that's up to you; I just wanted to point out that calling her "overweight" isn't using any common definition of the word.

Steering back to photography, I have a very large Cibachrome of her famous "Golden Dreams" picture. It was a very sad day when Ilfochrome died; those prints have something special I haven't really seen anywhere else. I'm told there are still a precious few printers who have the supplies and expertise to make Ilfochrome prints, but first you have to shoot something worth the expense!

Tom1956 · Jun 11, 2014

I know why I didn't care for her:
The same reason I wouldn't read any Hemingway, and don't want to hear any more Boston songs, etc When you kill yourself, I really would just as soon not hear about anything you did. You've discredited it all. George Eastman was a very sick old man who knew he would soon be a vegetable in agony. He did it while he could still move his arm. I give him a pass. But with suicide, if you do that, then I just plain don't care for you or anything you did. Life's hard Lord knows.

yulia_s_rey · Jun 11, 2014

Tom1956 said:
I know why I didn't care for her:
The same reason I wouldn't read any Hemingway, and don't want to hear any more Boston songs, etc When you kill yourself, I really would just as soon not hear about anything you did. You've discredited it all.

"Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another." - E. Hemingway

It is now believed that Hemingway suffered from an iron-absorption disorder that contributed to his lifelong struggle w/ depression.

Tom1956 · Jun 12, 2014

I'll hide the thread out of respect for you all (y'all). Shouldn't have chime in on this photographic website in the first place. Respects and apologies.

Sirius Glass · Jun 12, 2014

Thanx!

DREW WILEY · Jun 12, 2014

Like Kertesz, I classify Avedon as one of the biggest art phonies of all time. But being a cleverly-marketed deliberate phony equated to alleged creativity as the sixties approached, just like Warhol and especially Lichtenstein. What a disgusting era. I wonder how many celebrity photographers would even be celebrated themselves if their subject weren't celebrities themselves. Bah humbug to the whole Naw Yoiker
Fashionista culture anyway. If I see just one more Avedon picture in an art museum or airport lobby, I think I'll vomit. Just a commodity at this
point. The avante garde of the 60's is now just another stuck record played over and over and over and over....ad nauseum.

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Jun 12, 2014

Drew,

As far as I saw at old 8mm shots , america looks more perfect than today. Corbusier , Wright , Saarinen saw the 50s and 60s and marked the age. Cars were 100 times better than todays hyundais. People was knowing how to wear , music was excellent and poetry and literature and cinema was excellent. I think now all for anti soviet propaganda. When the Soviets collapsed . cadillac turned to toyota , music in to madonna and later rap . Look 1950s SR71 and todays F35 , Look 50s americas cup boats and todays monkey cage boats. Thanks to internet , todays life is bearable with it.

Beautiful Marilyn Monroe Photographed by Richard Avedon, 1957

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