Beautiful Photos Of Marilyn Monroe In New York City By Ed Feingersh, 1955 – Design You Trust

Beautiful Photos Of Marilyn Monroe In New York City By Ed Feingersh, 1955

“1955 was a year of change for Marilyn Monroe. After leaving Hollywood for New York, and abandoning her contract with Twentieth Century Fox, Marilyn was no longer “just a dumb blonde”, but a true renegade. In January, Marilyn formed a production company with photographer Milton Greene, and moved into a suite at the Ambassador Hotel.

Despite frenzied speculation, Marilyn largely evaded publicity. Dressed down in casual clothes and no make-up, she wandered the city unnoticed, and learned about “the Method”, a deeper, more challenging approach to drama, with Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio. And Marilyn also began the long, difficult journey of psychoanalysis at this time.

By March of 1955, however, both Greene and Marilyn agreed that her image needed a boost. Her wish to prove herself a ‘serious actress’ had been roundly mocked by the press, many of whom predicted that the erstwhile sex goddess was destroying her own career.

In his introduction to the 1990 book, Marilyn 55, Bob LaBrasca stated that it was Milton Greene who arranged for a cover spread in Redbook. But Robert Stein, magazine editor at the time, has claimed that it was another of Marilyn’s photographers, Sam Shaw, who arranged the initial contact, and one of Shaw’s portraits of Marilyn graces the resulting July 1955 cover story, “The Marilyn Monroe You’ve Never Seen”.

However, neither Shaw nor Greene worked on the story directly. Over a hectic week, photojournalist Ed Feingersh followed Marilyn, along with Stein, and Marilyn’s small coterie of business associates. Whether shopping, dining, or dressing up, Marilyn’s daily life was captured on film.

In a 2005 article for American Heritage, “Do You Want to See Her?”, Stein recalled that ‘the two Marilyns kept fading in and out’: in other words, the star charisma she could switch on at will, and the nervous, sensitive woman that lay just behind that mask.

According to Stein, Feingersh was also a rather unpredictable character. “He lived in the now, letting moments take him wherever they would… He must have had an apartment or room somewhere, but in all our years as close friends, I never saw it… His energy was unending… Life with him was never at a standstill”.

Unlike the glamour and cheesecake photographers Marilyn had posed for in Hollywood, Feingersh was not interested in creating illusions. Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Feingersh refused to allow his pictures to be cropped. His grainy, monochrome shots of Marilyn were among the most realistic ever taken, yet his subject remained beautiful.

Some of the photos were more contrived than others: for example, the famous series depicting Marilyn on the New York subway. She never used public transport, for fear of being mobbed. Nonetheless, as Bob LaBrasca remarked, Marilyn had “an unaristocratic air and seemed almost at home among the straphangers”. – Tara Hanks







If you want more awesome content, subscribe to 'Oh, Design You Trust,' our brand new Facebook page! Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

More Inspiring Stories

Amazing Black-and-White Photos of Amsterdam Taken by Dutch Painter George Hendrik Breitner
After 4 Years Of Not Throwing Away His Trash This Photographer Created A Powerful Photo Series
Soviet Hooligans: Goths, Punks And Metalheads Of The USSR
Sublime Street Photographs Of Hong Kong In The 1950s And 1960s
PIXERS: Your Walls & Stuff
Neringa Rekasiute's "We. Women" Photo Project Places Women In the Throes Of A Major Fear — And Is An Ode To Raw Self-Love
Paolo Di Paolo Captured Spectacular Photos Of Italy In The 1950s And 60s
Photographer Johnny Joo Captures Forgotten Structures Overtaken By Nature
Breathtaking Surreal Self Portraits By Rachel Baran
These Photos Of Children Fighting Monsters From Their Nightmares Are Adorable
Amazing Photographs Of Carrie Fisher On A Fire Escape In New York City, 1977
Historic Photos Of Russian Beauties In Traditional Costumes Prove Slavic Beauty Never Gets Boring
Elephant Rose by Jean-Baptiste Courtier
Smartphone Snaps Surprise in The 2021 Mobile Photography Awards
Venice Beach Roller Skaters: Cruising The Promenade Of LA's Chillest Neighborhood
A Man Studied Photography In Prison. These Are The Photos He Took When He Got Out.
"Hong Kong Hallucinations": Fantastic Urban Photography By Johannes Heuckeroth
"Stags Hens & Bunnies": Photographer Dougie Wallace Has Captured Blackpool In All Its Profligate Glory
Photographer Captures All the Goofiness and Joy of Dogs Lying Upside Down
Photo Masterpieces Of The Red Bull Illume Photo Awards 2016
NASA Captures New Magnificent Images Of Galaxies
What Media Can Do With Our Minds And The Truth
The Spirit of Post-Apocalyptic Russia Through the Incredible Atmospheric Photographs of Alexander Sukharev
Fantastic Photographs Of Native Americans In Ceremonial Masks, 1905-1915