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Norma Jeane Was Always A Butterfly - Blog Posts
One day when we were relaxing on the beach between photo sessions, I decided to capture some new expressions I had glimpsed on Marilyn’s face. Getting her in close-up, I asked her to react instinctively, without giving herself time to think, to the words happiness, surprise, reflection, doubt, peace of mind, sadness, self-torment…and death.
When I said ‘death’ she took hold of the folded dark-cloth and covered her head with it. Death to her was blackness, nothingness. I tried to coax another reaction from her. Death might be a beginning, the hope of an everlasting light. She shook her head: ‘That’s what death is for me.’
She turned towards me, her face set and despairing, eyes dulled, her mouth suddenly bereft of color. To her, death was ‘the end of everything.’
- Andre de Dienes, Marilyn Mon Amour
Marilyn Monroe at the Plaza Hotel Fountain in New York City (1957). Photo by Sam Shaw.