BOOK REVIEW BY DAVID MARSHALL

Christmas season is just warming up so I figured I’d highlight another of those major coffee table books this week. It’s going to be up to you if you want to add it to your wish list or if you would prefer to boycott Mr. Stern all together.

 It’s a rough choice. On one hand you’ve got a huge book of extreme quality and a tagline on the cover that reads “2,571 Photographs”. On the other hand you’ve got the work of a man many feel took advantage of Marilyn while she was alive and disregarded her wishes after her death. Like I say, it’s a rough call. Used to be when boycotts came around you would have an easy time deciding-- like not buying grapes so as to support Cesar Chavez or not ordering Coors when in a bar. But where it might be easy to go for apples over grapes or Bud over Coors, avoiding the massive collection of photos taken over a three day period, (June 23, 24 and 25, 1962), during a time where many feel Marilyn was at her most beautiful--- it’s going to be a very, very hard choice. But if you are anything like me, you won’t hesitate a second. Yes, I feel kind of bad about it but I tell you, the minute I saw that Stern had come out with the COMPLETE Last Sitting, I dug that credit card out as fast as I could and even considered taking a cab rather than lugging the massive tomb home on the subway.

 For those of you who might not know the controversy that surrounds Stern and all of his work with Marilyn, there really is plenty to be angry about. First, regardless if it were at his urging or just something he allowed to happen, Marilyn got more than a little tipsy during one of these sessions and the result was several photos taken of her without her consent as she slept. Then there’s the matter of the Xs. Marilyn, as with all her photographers, had a clause that allowed her to review all of the photos prior to anything being published. She would then X out those she did not want to be seen: either with a red marker, fingernail polish or at times with an object that would scratch right into the negative. It would be impossible to not understand her wishes. Yet Stern did just that-- completely disregarded her wishes and published several of the photos she had expressly vetoed. Then there’s the matter of his -- what? Arrogance is what I’d call it. It’s the title of his first book, “The Last Sitting” followed up by this volume, “The Complete Last Sitting”. For those of you who haven’t been filled in-- Marilyn’s work with Bert Stern was not the last nor was it the second to last “sitting”. It might be the last sitting, (and the first I believe), that Stern did with her but it was not the last professional photography session of Marilyn’s. That would be her work with Allan Grant for the LIFE Magazine Meryman interview. And then between Stern and Grant there was her two day session with George Barris.

 So yeah, Stern’s got a bit of an attitude thing goin’ on. But man, who can blame him? Well, a lot of folks I guess but I’m the wrong one to ask as I LOVE the guy’s work. Well, most of it. 

That’s the thing with Stern. You either love his stuff or you hate it. And the photos that resulted from the three day session are far from even. Some are just about the best stuff she ever did -- like those black and white shots of that incredible backless black dress. Some are pretty mediocre-- like the ones with the “go-go” dress. And then there’s the ones I always think of as “those God awful things with her laying on the floor” where Stern photographed Marilyn with various bits of costume jewelry and glitter tossed on her. Again, I’m biased as Stern took a photo of Marilyn during these sessions that to me is the Ultimate photograph of Marilyn Monroe. Head back, lips parted, all the familiar nuances but then with that soft pillow white hair coming down over one eye and an overall 60s look that, for me, spells MARILYN like no other photograph taken of her.

 Now before you make up your decision of begging for it as a Christmas gift or boycotting all of Stern’s books, think about that tagline. 2,571 photographs. Talk about temptation… And all on that fine, thick, expensive, high-quality paper. Ooooh man.

 And that’s what makes this book-- those 2,571 photos are quite an insight into just what all goes into a photography session. You know the story, right? Vogue magazine had assigned Stern to photograph Marilyn for something very new to her-- or at least something she hadn’t done in over 10 years-- fashion modeling. So here’s Marilyn Monroe playing haute couture early 60s fashion model for the premiere fashion magazine of the era. This, for the most part, is not the Marilyn we are used to seeing. This is Marilyn in a hundred different hair styles, modeling the designer clothes of the day-- chic sleeveless shifts, floor-length chinchilla furs, and that paisley print Marilyn a Go-Go dress where she looks like she’s doing the Frug, (if you don’t know what the Frug is, don’t ask). Then there’s the scarf series, proving not only that the woman at thirty-six had nothing to worry about as well as proving gall bladder operations do leave scars. The bead series. The rolling around between the sheets series.

 463 pages. 375 pages in color. Every single picture, every proof sheet-- every click of the shutter for three days of pure Marilyn Monroe. And when Stern says Complete, he does mean Complete. That means the X’d pictures as well as the astounding as well as the so-so. Still undecided? Well then, think about what you’ll be doing Christmas afternoon once the wrapping paper has been picked up and the preparations for Christmas dinner are under control and the kids are playing with their toys and you just don’t think you could actually stomach yet another viewing of “It’s A Wonderful Life”. You could be sitting on the coach and slowly, savoringly, go over every one of those two thousand five hundred seventy-one photographs of one of the most beautiful and enchanting women ever born.