Overview
“Norma Jeane looks impossibly unspoiled in André de Dienes’ sumptuous collection.”Entertainment Weekly, Columbus, Ohio
“Pictures of a fresh, carefree, uninhibited Marilyn flirting with the camera on the
beach, in the snow, and amid the vast expanses of the American west. A child of
nature and a natural wonder.”
Der Spiegel, Hamburg
Fashion photographer André de Dienes’ life was changed forever one day in 1945 when he met a lovely young aspiring model named Norma Jeane Dougherty. They took many adventurous road trips together in those early years, de Dienes shooting Norma Jeane in every possible natural setting in his original, inspired style. He soon built up a huge portfolio of stunning photographs of the smiling brunette that helped to launch her modeling career and, a few years later, a film career that was to make her a legend.
His entire relationship with the star, including many private moments shared only by the two, is detailed in de Dienes’ secret memoirs, which were discovered when Marilyn Monroe fans ravaged his home after his death in 1988. De Dienes’ photographs of Monroe – which numbered in the thousands – captured the making of an icon, providing a rare perspective on the early development of a career that would catapult her to fame and ultimately end in tragedy.