Bert Stern

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Bertram Stern (born October 3, 1929 in Brooklyn , New York , † June 26, 2013 in Manhattan , New York) was an American fashion and advertising photographer . He became famous for his photo session with Marilyn Monroe for Vogue magazine in Bungalow 264 of the Bel-Air Hotel in June 1962.

Life

Born and raised as a child of Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn , he dropped out of school at 16. He got a job in the postal department of Look Magazine. There he made friends with the in-house photographer Stanley Kubrick . After further jobs as an office assistant for various magazines, he started in 1949 as an art director at the fashion magazine Mayfair . His work stimulated his interest in photography, so that he took his first photos far away from home as a soldier in the Korean War .

In 1953 he was commissioned to produce photos for an advertising campaign for Smirnoff Vodka . These recordings were quite successful, so he decided to become a full-time photographer. In addition to commercials, he produced the documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day in 1958 on the Newport Jazz Festival , which helped him to become better known.

In addition to orders for advertising campaigns, he was increasingly given the opportunity to produce portraits for articles. As early as November 1960, one of his photos graced the cover of Vogue magazine , and this was the final breakthrough. Many photo shoots with celebrities followed, especially from the film industry such as Elizabeth Taylor , Sophia Loren , Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot . Sharon Tate , Twiggy , Marisa Berenson , Liza Minnelli and Veruschka von Lehndorff joined them later .

In 1962, shortly before Marilyn Monroe's sudden death, Stern was given permission to hold a three-day photo shoot with the actress for Vogue . These as "the last sitting" ( the last session ) known recordings made him world famous. However, she censored or destroyed some contact sheets, on which she felt old or unfavorably recorded, by scratching the slides with nail polish “X-te” or with hairpins. Even these photos achieved cult status . A total of 2,571 fashion, portrait and nudes were created, of which only about a dozen could be published at the time.

At the height of his career in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he booked up to seven photo opportunities per day.

Stern had two daughters and a son from his marriage to ballet dancer Allegra Kent, who divorced in 1975. In the last years of his life he was married to the filmmaker Shannah Laumeister. Bert Stern died at the age of 83 on June 26, 2013 in his apartment in East Midtown Manhattan .

literature

  • Bert Stern: Marilyn Monroe - The Last Sitting , Schirmer and Mosel Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-88814-196-6 .

documentation

  • Bert Stern - The Man Who Shot Marilyn (Bert Stern: Original Madman) - Film portrait about the photographer by Shannah Laumeister from 2011

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Adrian Kreye: Mad Man - The photographer and director Bert Stern has died . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung from 29./30. June 2013.
  2. ^ Bert Stern: The Last Sitting , foreword
  3. ↑ Sebastian Hofer: On the death of the photographer Bert Stern: "I love women and photography". In: Spiegel Online . June 28, 2013, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  4. ↑ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/celebrity-photographers-family-at-war-745365
  5. ↑ Paul Vitello: Bert Stern, Elite Photographer Known for Images of Marilyn Monroe, Dies at 83. In: The New York Times , June 26, 2013. Accessed online June 27, 2013.
  6. ↑ Bert Stern: Original Madman. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Stern, Bert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stern, Bertram (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American fashion and advertising photographer
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 2013
Place of death Manhattan , New York City