Leif-Erik Nygårds
Covered by droit de suite
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"Marilyn Monroe photographed in Los Angeles at Bel Air Hotel, June 27th 1962"
Signed Leif-Erik Nygårds and numbered 58/100. Executed in 1998. Also signed on certificate included in lot. Cibachrome, image 50 x 75.5 cm. Sheet 50.5 x 85 cm.
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Detta specifika exemplar av Nygårds välkända bild är utförd i cibachrome, en teknik som Nygårds inte arbetar med idag och som sällan förekommer på marknaden.
1961-62 arbetade Nygårds som assistent till den amerikanske fotografen Bert Stern. En junidag 1962 befann de sig i Los Angeles för att ta bilder på Marilyn Monroe på uppdrag av Vogue Magazine. Uppdraget innebar en fyra dagar lång fotosession på Bel Air Hotel. Då Monroe vid den här tiden höll på att spela in filmen "Something's got to give" där hon porträtterade en svensk tjänstekvinna var hon intresserad av att Nygårds skulle öva uttal med henne. Eftersom de båda kom bra överens så gjorde Monroe ett undantag och lät honom ta en nakenbild av henne. Hon bestämde sceneriet och tillfället, Nygårds fick fånga ögonblicket och bilden blev spontan. Enligt uppgifter från Gary Cole, bildredaktör på Playboy, så är detta den sista bild av Monroe som togs av en professionell fotograf.
Nygårds minns scenariot då bilden blev till in i minsta detalj: ”I had very much wanted to be able to take one photograph of Marilyn so I could prove to my friends in Sweden that I had met her and photographed her. I felt I had a good relationship with Marilyn so I asked her: "Can I take just one frame of you"? "Of course" Marilyn answered. She was sitting on the bed swept in a sheet, just her head sticking out. She looked like a mumie. Though it would be a good picture. When I turned back Marilyn had released herself from the sheet and laid on the bed totally nude. My first thought was "I can’t show this photo to my mother", I was somewhat shocked, it was not exactly the picture I had in mind a few seconds earlier, but you don´t argue with a megastar, so I turned around to pick up my Leica from my camera bag. I tried to stay cool, connected my camera to the synccord and took this photo of her. After the flash went off, Marilyn lifted her head somewhat and smiled; a real human smile. I wish I had gotten a photo of that as well, but I had already pulled the synccord so that picture was for ever gone. I still think it wasn’t Marilyn Monroe I photographed it was Norma Jeane Baker.”