The Last Sitting

A little while ago I wrote about the exciting Stanley Kubrick exhibit at LACMA (still showing until June!).  I am planning on going again.  There is just so much to see and I get so involved with every detail (obsessively so), that I really need to take at least three, maybe four hours of my day to enjoy the show.  Honestly, I could spend all day there!  Another exhibit I am dying to see is Robert Mapplethorpe's.  That is going on until March 24th!

I loved those Bert Stern images for Lolita, and I cannot wait to see them up close again.  One thing I touched upon are his photographs of Marilyn Monroe entitled, The Last Sitting.  It saddens me that Stern would then recreate these beautiful and timeless images for another "troubled" actress (she will remain nameless).  To me, Marilyn had much more depth to her character.  She was found dead six weeks after these images were taken.  As a child, I remember seeing some of these photographs in my mom's copy of Norman Mailer's biography entitled Marilyn. Now it sits on my shelf along with the Andre De Dienes book about her as well. Some of the most beautiful images of her that I've ever seen.  She has always fascinated me, since early on.  All this portrait work is really inspiring me to continue my series and take it to new and exciting territories.  More on that later.

your friend,

ava