John Vachon's "Marilyn August 1953: The Lost Look Photographs"

One of these days really soon, I will stop posting other people's Marilyn Monroe photographs and finish my own. In the meantime, the highlights from John Vachon's book:

Richard Avedon: "She understood photography. Not only was she curious about the process but also she understood the ways that photographs could create meaning, establish reality. She also understood what makes a great photograph - not the technique, but the content. She was more comfortable in front of the camera than away from it... She was completely creative... She was very, very involved with the meaning of what she was doing, in an effort to make it more, to get the most out of it."



Richard Avedon's portrait of Marilyn Monroe, 1957



John Vachon, On location of The River of No Return, Banff, 1953



Marilyn is wearing a cast in these images so the photographer for David C. Nolan's collection missed the time period when she sprained her ankle on the movie set.



The reason I find this photograph so humorous relates directly to Robert Mitchum, the other main star in The River of No Return. The clip below from Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man shows another encounter with a bear beginning at 48 seconds.



It's almost the same ursine.