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Photogenic
Marilyn Monroe, AKA Norma Jean Baker, was one of the most photogenic women in the world. So powerful were her images, she still continues to fascinate half a century after her death. What made her so photogenic?
Well for one thing, many of her pictures were taken by the world's best photographers, including Ceceil Beaton, Philipe Halsman and Eve Arnold ...but it was more than that. Marilyn had many attractive features tht the camera loved; she had the curvacious lines and voluptous shape that resonated in the 1950's; unike the idealised super-slim figures of today she was fleshy, though not fat.
Her facial features were unique and sensuous. Posessed of a rather large, heart shaped head, her big, deep-set eyes were beautifully set and wide apart, her forehead was broad and her lips were generously proportioned. However, perhaps what really set her apart was the langorous, sexual poses she expressed....she oozed a kind of vulnerable sex-appeal and behind the soft, blue-grey eyes, a hint of tragic neediness lurked. As author William Manchester remarked: "Marilyn's need to be desired was so great that she could make love to a camera."
In addition to her natural charms, the dramatic make-up and clothes of the era suited the camera and Marlyn was the perfect canvas. She wore the markers of the classic sex symbol through her stylized look - the platinum hair, dark, arched brows, deeply coloured lips and black rimmed eyes all emphasised her look and worked photogenically.
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Complex
Marilyn's troubled childhood and the lasting effects of her relationship with her unstable, mentally ill mother are well documented. She was a complex woman..a kind of damaged ideal, whose image seems to mean different things to different people. Some see her as a tortured, unhappy soul, others as soft and vulnerable and others still as relying too much on her sex appeal. Her internal life and the suddeness of her death are something of a mystery. The two most significant men in her life were poles apart - Baseballer Joe Demaggio and playwright, Arthur Miller. When asked once what man she most admired, she replied "Albert Einstein". This suggests that Marilyn valued intelligence and she was no doubt conscious that people tended to value her own worth in terms of her sex appeal.
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Marilyn's Image Outlived Her
As the song goes her candle burnt out long before the legend ever did" - Marilyn Monroe, aka, Norma Jean Baker, was just 36 when she died in her her home in Brentwood LA, from an overdose of barbituates. The final years of her life had been sucked up in a maelstrom of personal problems, including depression, insecurity, alcohol and drug abuse.
Like other Hollywood icons before her, she was entrapped by her own powerfully sexualised image - the woman inside was really a mystery, certainly to her public, who were, and still are, enthralled by the films and photographs. A commodity in the Hollywood system, there were few chances to escape the industry creation she had become.
Many of those who knew her spoke of her desire for self-improvement, and, tellingly, for normalcy. Somehow she could never quite manage it...as she said herself:
"After all, if I can't be myself, what's the good of being anything at all?'
