Marilyn & Me

May 28, 2012
Photojournalist Schiller had photographed plenty of celebrities before, including Jimmy Stewart and Lee Remick, but when he was sent by Look magazine to shoot Marilyn Monroe on the set of 1960's Let's Make Love, he realized he had never met a star like Monroe. To hear him tell it in this brief memoirâthe companion to Taschen's oversized $1,000 tome of some of Schiller's most famous and unpublished pictures of Monroeâ the two quickly established a sort of professional camaraderie that enabled him to get shots that other photographers couldn't, including pictures of Monroe in the nude. A handful of iconic shots and unpublished photos are included here, like the "ethereal" portrait that graced Life magazine's cover when she died, and a moving shot of Joe DiMaggio (her second husband) at the star's funeral. But folks interested in gossip won't find it hereâSchiller's interactions with Monroe and his efforts to sell his shots to Life magazine and other media outlets dominate the slim book. While not particularly revelatory, fans of the late actress will appreciate his sympathetic approach and the release of new images timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of her death. Photos.

June 15, 2012
A photographer's unfocused memoir of his time with Marilyn Monroe. Accomplished photojournalist Schiller (Into the Mirror: The Life of Master Spy Robert P. Hanssen, 2002, etc.) recounts his brief access to Monroe in a curiously sour volume that does little to reveal new facets of the famously troubled actress' life or art. Schiller photographed Monroe during the production of her final films, Let's Make Love and the unfinished Something's Got to Give, undistinguished entries in the Monroe filmography made as the actress' irresponsible behavior on set sabotaged her faltering career and the personal problems that would lead her to commit suicide began to dominate all aspects of her life. In Schiller's recollection, Monroe was alternately warm and wary, chatty and chilly, personable and remote. More consistent was her mercenary understanding of her sexual allure and a single-minded focus on exploiting her mystique to its fullest commercial potential. Schiller is equally self-interested, and the narrative is as devoted to his wheeling and dealing with various magazines and attempts to outmaneuver rival photographers as it is to presenting a compelling portrait of his most famous subject. The author's zeal in maximizing the profits from his shots of a nude Monroe, who desperately hoped their notoriety might improve her shaky position with the film studio, may strike some as offensive, and the memoir, ostensibly a compassionate look at a troubled star, becomes instead a queasy document of the ways in which prurience, opportunism and crass calculation drive the entertainment industry and exact a tragic human toll. An unhappy little book that fails to illuminate the Monroe legend or the woman underneath.

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June 1, 2012
An ambitious 23-year-old in 1960, Schiller was already on the rise as a photojournalist when Look magazine sent him to the 20th Century-Fox studio to take pictures of Marilyn Monroe on the set of Let's Make Love. He was awed by her rapport with the camera, wit, and kindnessMonroe sent two dozen roses to his wife with a note of apology for keeping him on the set so late. Two years later, he was assigned to photograph Monroe during what turned out to be her last, ultimately unfinished production. After Schiller's pictures of Monroe swimming nude were seen the world over, he was trying to arrange future collaborations with the star when she died. Schiller went on to become a premier photographer, an Oscar- and Emmy-winning movie and television producer and director, and a best-selling author. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Monroe's death, Schiller succinctly and respectfully tells the compelling and gently revealing story of his unforgettable encounters with the smart, determined, witty, and lonely star, accompanied by his gorgeous photographs, some never before published.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)