Marilyn Monroe, 1957

Marilyn Monroe playing with a red veil. This series of photographs taken in January of 1957 for Life magazine, would be the last time Milton H. Greene and Marilyn Monroe would work together on an assignment. This sitting, appropriately titled “The Red Dress Sitting,” produced several memorable images, all displaying the playful eroticism that was a constant theme in all of their work together. Wearing fiery red against a black background, Marilyn peers provocatively at the camera, her face partially veiled by chiffon. Milton reveals a whimsical, yet sensuous Marilyn Monroe. This image is featured on the 1997 collectible bottle of vintage Marilyn Merlot wine.Milton used a twin lens Rolliflex with a 2.8 planar lens and early Kodak E-3 Ektachrome color positive film. No longer printable photographically, the original film was drum-scanned. After 40 hours of digital restoration, Joshua Greene (son of Milton H. Greene) resurrected this image.