Bertram Stern (October 3, 1929 – June 26, 2013) was an American commercial photographer.

Biography

Stern was the son of Jewish immigrants and grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

. His father worked as a children's portrait photographer. After dropping out of high school at the age of 16, he gained a job in the mail room at ''

Look To look is to use sight to perceive an object. Look or The Look may refer to: Businesses and products * Look (modeling agency), an Israeli modeling agency * ''Look'' (American magazine), a defunct general-interest magazine * ''Look'' (UK m ...

'' magazine. He became art director at ''Flair'' magazine, where Stern learned how to develop film and make contact sheets, and started taking his own pictures. In 1951, Stern was drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

, sent to Japan and assigned to the photographic department. In the 1960s, his heavy use of

amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. It is also commonly used ...

s led to the end of his marriage to ballerina

Allegra Kent Allegra Kent (born August 11, 1937) is an American ballet dancer, actress, children's book author and columnist. Life and career Iris Margo Cohen was born to Jewish parents, Harry Herschel and Shirley (née Weissman) Cohen, and later changed her n ...

. He was one of the last photographers to shoot

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

, in June and July 1962 for Vogue magazine. Monroe died in August 1962. These sessions became known as ''

The Last Sitting ''The Last Sitting'' is a book and photo shoot of Marilyn Monroe by photographer Bert Stern. The photo shoot was commissioned by ''Vogue'' magazine in late June 1962, taking place over three daily sessions, just six weeks before she died. Ber ...

''; The 2571 photographs taken on these sessions were published after her death in ''The Complete Last Sitting'' in 1992. In the 1970s, Stern moved to Spain to recover from his drug addiction. By the late 1970s, Stern returned to the U.S. to photograph portraits and fashion. In 1979, he published "The Pill Book", along with journalist Lawrence Chilnick. This A to Z guide of the most prescribed drugs in the US, which sold 18 million copies, included color photographs of the pills by Stern.

Filmography

Jazz on a Summer's Day ''Jazz on a Summer's Day'' is a concert film set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, directed by commercial and fashion photographer Bert Stern and Aram Avakian, who also edited the film. The Columbia Records jazz producer, Georg ...

- a concert film set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, directed by Bert Stern and Aram Avakian

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stern, Bert 1929 births 2013 deaths People from Brooklyn Photographers from New York City American portrait photographers United States Army soldiers Vogue (magazine) people American male writers American people of Jewish descent 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews