Unpredictable and ingenious Bert Stern

• The unpredictable and ingenious Bert Stern

"I was in love with everyone who was shooting."

Photographer Bert Stern was one of those who anticipated your photos and determined face of modern fashion and celebrity photography.

Undoubtedly the most famous work of the photographer is a collection of 2,500 photographs of Marilyn Monroe taken for Vogue magazine commissioned in June 1962 in Room Los Angeles Hotel Bel-Air - as it turned out, six weeks before the movie star's death. But plenty of other talented masters of works, which his birthday wish to tell you.

The son of Jewish immigrants, a native of Brooklyn, his career Stern started in the mid 40's courier in Look Magazine. His penchant for design and good taste noticed magazine art director, who became his assistant. Well established in the itself, Bert Stern himself soon becomes an art director, but in a different publication. Here I was born and his passion for photography: "Since I was the art director of the magazine, I thought that I have the right to photograph, as a result, I became more and photographer."

The rapid development of the young photographer's career was interrupted by the start of the Korean War, and on his return from the front Stern and does want to engage with photography. Fortunately, his close friend, who works in a small advertising agency Lawrence C. Gumbinner, Stern invited to experiment with it, creating an advertisement for vodka "Smirnoff". The company wanted to abandon the idea of hand-drawn logo and to use the photo. Stern made a few test shots for layout. And when the photographer Irving Penn refused to work, Stern's candidacy was approved.

Walking along 5th Avenue with a glass of Martini in hand, Stern was looking for inspiration, then that he noticed the reflection created by the hotel's windows Plaza, which is the distortion of the lens turned upside down. "Then I got the idea to take a picture of the pyramids of Giza" upside down "because of their inverted reflection - but for that I had to fly to Egypt."

This photo Stern for "Smirnoff" won and became a symbol of its innovative approach. His photographic career began.

Bohemia 1962, of Vogue

After a while, Bert Stern become one of the most successful, and highly creative photographers. His meteoric career coincided with the rapid development of advertising, the golden period of cinema and jazz pop. He created iconic portraits of world celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor, Louis Armstrong, Audrey Hepburn and others. But perhaps the most iconic images of Marilyn Monroe have become.

"We met with Marilyn on the way to the room. She was alone, she had a scarf, green pants and a sweater. I told her: "You are beautiful," to which she replied: "Well, you said that."

"In the room, she looked around and asked about cosmetics. I said that much makeup we do not need, and offered little to draw the eye. She took one of chiffon scarves that were there, looked at him and said, "You want to do nudes? "So it was her idea."

At one point, Marilyn tired of disguise, asked all but Stern's get out of her room, then left alone with Monroe, he made those shots that I wanted. Images from this series remains one of the most iconic and intimate portraits of celebrities ever made.

"There was something mystical in these pictures. She died the following Monday. "

Audrey Hepburn, Paris, 1959.

Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg for Vogue New-York in 1970.

model Veruschka, Look Magazine, 1963.

Ray Charles, 1959.

Sue Lyon in the image of Lolita 1961.

Stern's recollection of working on the set of "Lolita": "I went to the store and saw all these fun shooting requisites - candy, sunglasses with heart-shaped and so on. I have not seen the movie but I read Nabokov's book, so are a few ideas for the shooting I still was. I always work with the words, which then becomes a picture. "