ARTIST IN FOCUS: BERT STERN
Old Hollywood meets innovation: LUMAS rekindles the radiance of an icon with The Last Sitting—the legendary final shoot of Marilyn Monroe, now reimagined as dynamic Multi-Phase Editions.
The Last Sitting: A Tribute to the Icon Marilyn Monroe
Three days, one hotel room, a moment for eternity: Shortly before her death, Bert Stern captured Marilyn Monroe in what became one of history’s most intimate portraits. Especially striking: the negatives she censored herself—with hairpins or nail polish. Stern kept those marks—notes of a myth.
The same light that once touched her skin still shines through the negatives—in Multi-Phase Editions that reveal a different facet of the icon with every shift in perspective.
Bert Stern (1929–2013) is among the most influential photographers of the 20th century.
His advertising campaigns revolutionized commercial photography—his style was bold, emotional, and unmistakably clear. Stern became world-renowned for his iconic portraits of pop culture: Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor—and Marilyn Monroe.
The Last Sitting was shot in 1962 in a suite at the Bel-Air Hotel—just weeks before Monroe’s death. These images capture not only her glamour, but also her vulnerability. Stern created an atmosphere of intimacy that revealed the unknown within the familiar. Images she disliked were marked by her own hand—using whatever she had on her. Stern preserved these gestures as traces of their encounter.
Today, these portraits return as LUMAS Multi-Phase Editions—revived through innovative lenticular technology that captures Monroe’s shifting expressions with every glance—and releases them again. A work that doesn’t just tell history—it keeps the myth alive.
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