This portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Bert Stern is deliberately provocative. Holding large flowers fashioned from towels to her breasts, a heavy-lidded Monroe seems to exhibit the sensuous playfulness expected of her public persona. While Stern’s soft lighting creates an atmosphere of intimacy, an uneasy feeling lingers; Monroe’s torso torques awkwardly at the bottom of the frame and the edges of her hair, face, and body seem to be feathering away, insubstantial against the too-brightly-lit background. In performing for the camera, Monroe and Stern (perhaps unwittingly) illuminate her overall vulnerability within his studio and in a culture that commodified her image.
