Iconic photographer Bert Stern has died at the age of 83. Stern, probably best known for his images of Marilyn Monroe, passed away at his home in Manhattan on Tuesday. He is survived by Shannah Laumeister, a longtime friend, who has said that she and Stern had been secretly married since 2009. Laumeister is also the director of a recent documentary featuring Stern, “Bert Stern: Original Madman.”
His photographs of Marilyn were taken over a few days in June of 1962, about six weeks before she died. Over 2,500 images were complied into his book, “Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting.” Bert Stern has said that women were his favorite thing in the world. There were only two that really interested him. Allegra Kent, his wife (with whom he had a tumultuous marriage and three children with) and Marilyn Monroe.
Stern was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 3, 1929. He was the son of a children's portrait photographer and served as a photographer in the Army while in Japan.
In 1959, he made a then-controversial statement to a panel of commercial artists. “I like to put my feelings into my photographs,” Stern said.
That same year he was hired by the fine people that make Spam to “romanticize shish kebab made from Spam.” He shot it in the Gulf of Mexico with a bevy of helpers and models. It was 'dreamy.' The Spam people were 'pleased.'
His work can be found in the Museum of Modern Art, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and the International Museum of Photography.
Via NY Times
Tittle, Bert not Burt.
Yes, the name in the "Tittle" is mispelled HA!HA!HA!
"He is survived by Shannah Laumeister, a longtime friend, who has said that she and Stern had been secretly married since 2009."
That's one way to cash in...
A true master. They don't make them like this any more.