Poland opens its Milton Greene fashion photo archive to reveal a fresh and personal new look at the Hollywood icon and many of her friends and colleagues of the period in over 3000 shots
ADVERTISEMENTThe Polish state archives have opened their Milton Greene fashion photograph collection and unveiled an exhibition of his work in Wroclaw heavily featuring Marilyn Monroe and other Hollywood stars.
The show has snaps taken on movie sets, in theatres, during sessions for magazines as well as during private meetings.
“Some photographs were posed but some show Marilyn Monroe in intimate situations. The key thing was to show Marilyn Monroe not only as a great actress and sex symbol but Marilyn Monroe as a human and a girl,” says curator Marek Stanielewicz.
Greene worked for Look, Life, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and other magazines. He first met Monroe in 1953 and soon became her friend and business partner. He was uniquely placed to show off the star and the human being that was Marilyn.
“When we look at these photographs we can see first of all the relationship, a very close personal relationship between the photographer and the subject. This is the element, that if the photographer is not able to attain the status of a partner with the subject, then we can forget about it,” says photographer Krzysztof Gierałtowsk.
The show’s more than 3,000 prints also include Audrey Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Farah Fawcett, Coco Chanel, Grace Kelly, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Andy Warhol, Gene Kelly or Hubert de Givenchy to name a few.
Apart from portraits of celebrities, the collection also features self portraits, portrait studies, experiments with print development and much more.
The value of a whole collection has been calculated at between 4.5 and 6 million euros.
