Marilyn Monroe 'Sipping Champagne', from 'The Last Sitting'

Bert Stern

Bert Stern was one of the leading photographers of the 1950s and 1960s; he redefined fashion photography with his clean and direct style. Like his contemporaries Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, Stern pioneered a new photographic aesthetic, preferring uncluttered and emotionally direct images that strove not only to showcase the human figure but also to capture a sense of the subject’s psychology. “What makes a great model is her need, her desire; and it’s exciting to photograph desire,” Stern once said. Encouraged to pursue photography by Stanley Kubrick, Stern’s reputation quickly grew as he worked for commercial companies such as Revlon. He became a mainstay for fashion magazines like Vogue, and his portfolio featured such superstars as Twiggy, Truman Capote, and Audrey Hepburn. Stern famously captured Marilyn Monroe in The Last Sitting, the actress’s last group of portraits taken six weeks before her death.