"Make them fall in love."
The Architect of Desire
Bert Stern didn't just photograph products; he engineered a new American aesthetic.
“When a portrait evokes a feeling, then you’ve got something. Technique isn’t really important. What I want is a believable moment.” – Bert Stern
Bertram Stern (born 3 October 1929 in Brooklyn) is an American fashion and celebrity portrait photographer.
His best known work is arguably a collection of 2,500 photographs, some nude or semi-nude, taken of Marilyn Monroe over a three day period, six weeks before her death. As they were the last posed photographs taken of Monroe, the portfolio has come to be known as "The Last Sitting". The photographs were taken for Vogue, who published several of them following Monroe's death. A book containing these photographs, including copies of proofs over which Monroe had written comments, or crossed out with lipstick, was published in 1992 with the title Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting.
He also directed Jazz on a Summer's Day, a 1959 documentary film set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.Stern worked as a photographer on the film Lolita (1962) and was responsible for the publicity photographs of its star Sue Lyon. He has photographed celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Drew Barrymore in addition to his work for advertising and travel publications.
The Revolution of the Concept
Before Stern, advertising was literal. You showed the loaf of bread. After Stern, advertising became a mood. This section explores the dramatic shift in advertising philosophy that Stern pioneered in the early 1950s.
Pre-Stern: The Literal Era
Direct product display, focus on features, utilitarian photography.
Post-Stern: The Concept Era
Mood, atmosphere, surrealism, and the "it" factor.
In 1962, Stern had three intimate photo sessions with Marilyn Monroe, on assignment for Vogue, only weeks before the starlet’s unexpected death. The resulting 2,600 photographs, collectively known as “The Last Sitting,” are arguably the photographer’s most recognizable body of work and have inspired innumerable tributes and imitations.
The Pantheon of Cool
Stern’s lens captured the defining faces of mid-century culture. He treated stars not as subjects, but as co-conspirators in myth-making.
Audrey Hepburn
Delicate Elegance
Highlighting her gamine grace in the 1960s.
Elizabeth Taylor
Raw Chemistry
Captured the scandalous Burton affair on the Cleopatra set.
Louis Armstrong
Musical Soul
Directed Jazz on a Summer’s Day, a landmark concert film.
Gary Cooper
Old Hollywood Grit
Bridged the gap between classic stars and modern cool.
Twiggy
Mod Revolution
Defined the look of the emerging Mod fashion scene.
Richard Burton
Intense Presence
Often photographed alongside Taylor in raw, cinematic style.
The Last Sitting
In June 1962, Stern spent three days at the Bel-Air Hotel with Marilyn Monroe. He took over 2,500 photographs, capturing her in a state of ethereal intimacy just six weeks before her death.
1. "The Last Sitting" (1962)
- Stern’s most enduring legacy is his three-day marathon session with Marilyn Monroe at the Hotel Bel-Air.
The Assignment: Commissioned by Vogue, it was the first time the magazine had ever featured Monroe.
The Content: Stern took over 2,500 images, ranging from high-fashion editorial shots to intimate, vulnerable nudes.
The "Censored" Series: Monroe famously used a hairpin or nail polish to cross out images on the contact sheets that she didn't like. After her death, these "crossed-out" images became some of the most sought-after pieces of pop art.
Legacy: Taken just six weeks before her passing, the collection serves as a hauntingly beautiful final record of the 20th century's greatest icon.
2. Revolutionary Advertising
- Stern was a key figure in the "Creative Revolution" of 1950s Madison Avenue.
Smirnoff Vodka (1955): He created one of the most famous ads in history by traveling to Egypt and photographing a martini glass in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza. In the glass, the pyramid appeared inverted—a simple, graphic, and surrealist approach that was unheard of at the time.
Visual Simplicity: He pioneered a minimalist style that focused on a single, powerful graphic element, helping to define the "Golden Age" of advertising.
Before their publication in Vogue, Bert’s images were sent to Marilyn on contact sheets under the condition that she would return them all. When the photos came back, Marilyn had used an orange magic marker and scratches from a hairpin to cross out the pictures that, as Bert describes, “upset her because they didn’t reflect her picture of herself.”
“Making love and making photographs were closely connected in my mind when it came to women,” says Stern. “[Marilyn] said, ‘I want a man with an easy hand, a soft touch,’ so I tried to kiss her and she said no. But I did think if she’d said, ‘Let’s go off to the desert together,’ I’d have jumped in a car and driven away.”
“Women and photography were the two things that I loved most in the world. When I became a Voguephotographer, I got my chance to combine them,” Bert remembers.
“[Marilyn] went off into the bathroom and changed, and came out, lifted up one of the layers so that you could see through it, and she said, ‘How’s this for 36?’”The scar apparent on her stomach is from a gall-bladder surgery that the actress underwent earlier the same year.
“Liz Taylor is tough. I don’t fool around with Liz Taylor. I take my picture and I leave,” Stern recalls.
Stern and Stanley Kubrick were friends from their early days at Look magazine, where Stern held his first job as a mail boy and Kubrick was a young staff photographer. Kubrick asked Stern to take the publicity photos of Sue Lyon for his film Lolita, which was released in 1962.
Ever taken with the feminine allure, Stern argues, “Women are the goddesses. Man is the slave.”
January (after Ogden Nash): “If you think I’m cute / In my birthday suit, Don’t chide my indiscretion. / I feel my best / When I manifest / My compulsive tendencies toward psychosexual infantile regression.” (Esquire,December 1961)
Dali instructed Stern, “Hold the book tight,” while he used a grease pencil to make his marks.
Harpo Marx, 1959, and Buster Keaton, 1958, for Smirnoff.
Stern was awarded the first contract for an advertisement photo for Smirnoff Vodka, a company that had previously relied only on ad illustrations. Stern’s conceptual images were considered a great success and launched his lifelong career in photography.
Twiggy 1967
Louis Armstrong, 1958. In 1958, Stern shot and directed the documentary film Jazz on a Summer’s Day at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island.
Bert Stern: Original Mad Man (2011)
Bert Stern: Original Madman (sometimes titled Original Mad Man) is a 2011 documentary directed by Shannah Laumeister that profiles the life and career of legendary commercial and fashion photographer Bert Stern.
Overview
The film serves as an intimate, authorized portrait of Stern, who rose to fame in the 1950s as a pioneer of modern advertising photography. He is perhaps most famous for his "Last Sitting" series with Marilyn Monroe and for revolutionizing advertising with his clean, concept-driven campaigns, most notably for Smirnoff vodka.
Key Aspects of the Film
The "Original Mad Man": The title refers to Stern’s role as one of the defining figures of the "creative revolution" in 1950s Madison Avenue, alongside peers like Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.
Intimate Access: The film is directed by Shannah Laumeister, who was a model for Stern and had a long-term, complex personal relationship with him. This provides the film with a unique, if sometimes subjective, perspective on his character, creative process, and personal struggles.
Scope: It covers his meteoric rise from a mailroom clerk at Look magazine to a high-fashion icon, his work in cinema (including the music documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day), and his eventual fall from grace and later years of reinvention.
Visual Archive: The documentary is noted for its extensive collection of Stern's iconic photography, featuring portraits of major celebrities including Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Twiggy, and, of course, Marilyn Monroe.
Production and Release
While often cited with a 2011 date due to its festival circuit appearances (such as at the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival), it received a broader limited theatrical release in the United States on April 5, 2013. You may occasionally see it referred to as Becoming Bert Stern, which is effectively the same film.
The documentary is frequently praised for its visual beauty and the access it provides to Stern's archives, though some critics have noted that its tone is highly sympathetic, perhaps due to the personal relationship between the director and the subject.
Being Bert Stern: The Life of a Photographer, Pioneer, and Provocateur >>>
