This is a big picture book as per the title and previous volumes of
this series have included JFK and Grace Kelly.
The books are stunning with big full page pictures of the subjects.
The Marilyn book has a nice blend of rare images and classic poses,
there's childhood images, some of which were recently published in
Michelle Morgan's book, and it goes right through the spectrum of
photographers Marilyn worked with including George Barris, Bert Stern,
Eve Arnold, Sam Shaw, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Philippe Halsman.
Curiously and perhaps disapointingly, there's no works by David
Conover, and only one credit to Andre De Dienes and Milton Greene who
were all important photographers in Marilyn's life. The Andre credit
is a Picture Post cover and Milton's one picture was taken at the 1955
benifit in aid of arthritis, so it's not a typical Milton Greene
photo. But then their works have had exposure in their own books,
although Conover's aren't seen so readily available and this would
have been a great outlet for them.
There's a brief 5 page biography at the start of the book. Most of it
isn't very flattering to Marilyn and I feel it's a bit out of place in
an otherwise lovely book. I don't know whether he has translated this
from the original French text (it was first published in France), but
it's like he's pasted together his account or his views of her life
and work based on magazine clippings that are a bit gossipy and
negative towards Marilyn. Basically going on about how awful she was
to work with, how bad she was at acting and that she wasn't quite in
the same league as Elizabeth Taylor or Audrey Hepburn and that she
only had herself to blame etc etc This spoils the book for me. I think
that there's nothing wrong with being critical of someone but when it
becomes brutal then that's another matter!!However, the text is only
on the first 5 pages and not really important to the book. Most
people probably wouldn't even read it be honest.
The book itself is really lovely, coffee table style, that you can
just pick up and look at randomly. And it has some rare shots that you
don't often see published or published in other Marilyn books so it's
a worthwhile addition to any collection.
|
|
|
