The Errant Æsthete

Bert Stern is one of the legendary figures in contemporary photography. Beginning September 27, 2007 at the Staley-Wise Gallery, Manhattan, his extraordinary collection of portraits of stars ranging from Audrey Hepburn to the spellbinding 1962 “last sitting” photographs of Marilyn Monroe form a gallery of the most beautiful women of our time.

Twiggy:Paris

In the 1960’s he became the American prototype of the fashion photographer as media star, and his pictures of models from Twiggy to Iman have become icons to a new generation of photographers.

In his book, “The Last Sitting,” Stern commented, “I was preparing for Marilyn’s arrival like a lover, and yet I was here to take photographs. Not to take her in my arms, but to turn her into tones, and planes, and shapes, and ultimately an image for the printed page.”

Marilyn Monroe: from the Last Sitting, 1962