My journey ends here...
STERN Bert
Bertram Stern.
Date of birth : October 3, 1929, Brooklyn (New York).
Practise: photographer.
Portrait
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Place of living : New York City.
Story
He came to photography in self-teaching. Actually he first worked at the mail department of Life magazine, where he was noticed by an art director who would teach him design.
He worked in Japan for the US Army in 1951.
Since 1953 he is a fashion and publicity photographer.
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The precision of the details and the black and white value gradation were so perfect that the backer, finding the picture "so good" had hesitated for a long time to make it print.
Eartha Kitt
In 1962, Bert Stern was a reknown photographer. He lived in New York CIty and worked for Vogue magazine.
He was ready to take pictures of Marilyn, and more precisely for nude pictures (which hadn't happened since her pictures for the calendar with Tom Kelley in 1951).
Vogue magazine and Marilyn agreed, under her condition that the pictures would be taken in Los Angeles.
To him, nude pictures in studio were impossible, she wouldn't agree. He then had the idea to realise his session at the Bel Air Hotel : it was a very charming hotel, quiet, and the fireplace in each room guaranteed her a maximum of privacy.
To lead Marilyn to take off "smoothly", he asked Vogue magazine to provide him some scarfs and jewels.
The room 261 had a big sitting-room linked to the room by a passage. The room was used as a cabin; there was also a dressing table where Marilyn could make her up and a big bathroom. The sitting-room was used as a studio.
Pat Newcomb asked Stern to buy 3 bottles of Dom Perignon 1953 champagne for Marilyn.
She came in and visited the place. She agreed to undress but kept her pants on and played with the scarfs. The session lasted all night long, until 7.00 AM and at he end of the session, after having drunk lots of champagne, she agreed to completely undress, wearing only a black and white scarf.
Stern went back to New York City; Vogue magazine, satisfied with the pictures, wanted however black and white fashion pictures for the 8 pages planned in the magazine.
Marilyn agreed for a new 3-days session, and Stern went back to Los Angeles.
She arrived at 7.00 PM, 5 hours late, but in 3 sessions, staggered on 2 weeks at the Bel Air Hotel, since June 23, 1962, he took near 2 700 pictures (portraits, fashion pictures photos de mode, nudes).
Leif-Erik Nygards, Bert Stern's assistant was the one who took the very last picture of Marilyn, a picture Stern
has wrongfully taken all the credit for himself (
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Pictures of the session
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Pictures of " The Last Sitting"
The Bed Sitting
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The Bed Sheet Sitting
The Black Dress Sitting (part 1)
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The Black Dress Sitting (part 2)
The Brown Fur Sitting
The Chinchilla Sitting
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The Classic Sitting
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The Color Pearls Sitting
Orange
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crossed out pictures
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black and white
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Green
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crossed out pictures
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The Cup Sitting
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The Face Sitting
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The Fashion Sitting
The Fur Coat Sitting
The Hat Sitting
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The Jackie Kennedy Sitting
The Make-up Sitting
The Pearl Sitting
pearls
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The Photograph Sitting
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The Scarf Sitting (part 1 & 2)
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The Black and White Scarf Sitting
The Dotted Scarf Sitting
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The Orange Scarf Sitting
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The Pink Sitting
The Pink Scarf Sitting
The Red Scarf Sitting
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Other
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pictures crossed out by Marilyn
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At that time, Vogue magazine published only 8 black and white pictures.
A 464 pages book based in this event, containing 2 571 pictures, "The Complete Last Sitting" had been reprinted several times. More than any other book, it gives the idea of waht a picture session with Marilyn could be : a succession of poses lightly different, tiny changes in the way to hold the pose, to smile and to move.
Bibliography
"The Complete Last Sitting", Bert Stern, Munich, Schirmer, 1992.
"The Complete Last Sitting", published in 2000, Schirmer & Mosel.
"The Last Sitting" published in 1982, MacDonald
and Co.
"Sa dernière séance" published in 1982, Filipacchi .
Website
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