For what would have been Marilyn Monroe's 100th birthday, photographer Lawrence Schiller recalls the nude photoshoot that showcased the star's shrewd control over her image, challenging the myth of a 'messy' blond bombshell. Schiller, now 89 and the last living photographer of Monroe, remembers her snipping negatives she disliked under the streetlights of Schwab's Pharmacy on Sunset Boulevard in 1962.
Two months after the shoot, Monroe died from a drug overdose. Schiller speaks of her editing with admiration, noting that he would not have published any picture she destroyed. This narrative of Monroe as an active architect of her own image is central to a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, timed for her centenary.
Curator Rosie Broadley writes that Monroe not only performed but also directed and vetoed images she did not like. Photographers like Richard Avedon, Milton Greene, and Bert Stern may have held the camera, but Monroe guided it. Broadley notes that Monroe conveyed vitality that was often at odds with her personal struggles.
Schiller recalls the pool shoot in May 1962 for the comedy 'Something's Got to Give', where Monroe ignored director George Cukor's commands to swim to better light. Before the shoot, she asked Schiller what would happen if she came out of the pool with nothing on, leading to iconic nude photos. Schiller says their relationship involved mutual jokes with poignant subtext.
Photographer Eve Arnold described Monroe as a woman in pursuit of her lost self, with the photographer giving her what she was missing. Schiller's snapshots show joy despite Monroe's freefall that summer, following her divorce from Arthur Miller, surgeries, a psychiatric clinic stay, and worsening addiction. Monroe was also aware of Elizabeth Taylor's affair with Richard Burton and the costly 'Cleopatra' production at the same studio.
