Bert Stern
[Photographer, b. 1929, Brooklyn, New York, d. 2013, New York.]
She was so beautiful at that time. I didn’t say, “Pose nude.” It was more one thing leading to another: You take clothes off and off and off and off and off.
(On his June 1962 photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe.) 
I think all my pictures are ideas, and they’re ideas made into images.
What makes a great model is her need, her desire; and it’s exciting to photograph desire.
I’d photographed a lot of women, and Marilyn was the best. She’d move into an idea, I’d see it, quickly lock it in, click it, and my strobes would go off like a lightning flash—PKCHEWW!!—and get it with a zillionth of a second.
(On photographing the actress six weeks before her death.)
I was preparing for Marilyn’s arrival like a lover, and yet I was here to take photographs. Not to take her in my arms, but to turn her into tones, and planes, and shapes, and ultimately into an image for the printed page.
(On photographing the actress six weeks before her death.)
... her arm was up, like waving farewell. I saw what I wanted, I pressed the button, and she was mine. It was the last picture.
(On photographing Marilyn Monroe six weeks before her death.)
Women like to take their clothes off. I noticed that. Especially in front of a camera. Or a mirror.
