Photographer Douglas Kirkland lying next to Marilyn Monroe during their 1961 shoot
In 1961, Marilyn Monroe told 27 year old photographer Douglas Kirkland to come into bed with her.
The evening he spent with Monroe 51 years ago was sensual, intimate, and spontaneous, and it produced the famous series “An Evening With Marilyn Monroe.” The series consists of Marilyn posing sensually in bed, with only a silk sheet between her and the camera. Kirkland was a novice photographer at the time, nothing compared to his prolific career today, but according to Kirkland, the two of them shared a tension-filled shoot that helped create the stunning photographs. Thinking back on the evening today, he describes their time together as though they “were in a beautiful dance,” with Marilyn leading of course.
Decades after her passing, young starlets today still recreate Monroe's iconic portraiture, often taking a page from Kirkland's book. Take Lindsay Lohan, who in 2008 was photographed by Bert Stern reproducing his iconic Monroe images 46 years prior. In 2002, Kirkland himself photographed Angelina Jolie for her film "Life Or Something Like It" in a blonde hairdo posing as Marilyn.
Kirkland’s photographic memoir "With Marilyn: An Evening/1961," tied to the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s passing, is out this week. We caught up with him to discuss the tension on the set that night, and how he feels about young starlets imitating his images today.
There is such a vivaciousness that Marilyn has in the shots -- what direction did you give her, or did it just come organically?
She suggested ultimately how we should do it. Because honestly, I was a kid, a new kid on the block more or less, and I wanted to get very steamy pictures of Marilyn but I didn’t know how to say that politely. These are images that she almost produced in a way, or created. The pinnacle moment [was] when she said for everybody to leave the room. I mean, I wouldn’t have dared say that. It was her idea. And that’s when it just kept getting into a higher and higher charge after that. So I think that it’s very important for me to give Marilyn the credit for what these are. I never said, put your hand here, turn this way or that way. I was talking with her and we were talking rapidly back and forth, but it was a seduction, a two-way seduction really. With everything except the final sex at the end, but the sex really went into the camera, and that’s why these pictures are what they are.
Full piece at Huff Post
The evening he spent with Monroe 51 years ago was sensual, intimate, and spontaneous, and it produced the famous series “An Evening With Marilyn Monroe.” The series consists of Marilyn posing sensually in bed, with only a silk sheet between her and the camera. Kirkland was a novice photographer at the time, nothing compared to his prolific career today, but according to Kirkland, the two of them shared a tension-filled shoot that helped create the stunning photographs. Thinking back on the evening today, he describes their time together as though they “were in a beautiful dance,” with Marilyn leading of course.
Decades after her passing, young starlets today still recreate Monroe's iconic portraiture, often taking a page from Kirkland's book. Take Lindsay Lohan, who in 2008 was photographed by Bert Stern reproducing his iconic Monroe images 46 years prior. In 2002, Kirkland himself photographed Angelina Jolie for her film "Life Or Something Like It" in a blonde hairdo posing as Marilyn.
Kirkland’s photographic memoir "With Marilyn: An Evening/1961," tied to the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s passing, is out this week. We caught up with him to discuss the tension on the set that night, and how he feels about young starlets imitating his images today.
There is such a vivaciousness that Marilyn has in the shots -- what direction did you give her, or did it just come organically?
She suggested ultimately how we should do it. Because honestly, I was a kid, a new kid on the block more or less, and I wanted to get very steamy pictures of Marilyn but I didn’t know how to say that politely. These are images that she almost produced in a way, or created. The pinnacle moment [was] when she said for everybody to leave the room. I mean, I wouldn’t have dared say that. It was her idea. And that’s when it just kept getting into a higher and higher charge after that. So I think that it’s very important for me to give Marilyn the credit for what these are. I never said, put your hand here, turn this way or that way. I was talking with her and we were talking rapidly back and forth, but it was a seduction, a two-way seduction really. With everything except the final sex at the end, but the sex really went into the camera, and that’s why these pictures are what they are.
Full piece at Huff Post
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