Marilyn Monroe, photographed by Richard Avedon.
They had been drinking champagne and enjoying themselves, and Marilyn Monroe danced for Avedon’s large format camera, the usual portrait of Marilyn we know and love, of beauty and seduction, and a playful essence.
Avedon was taking pictures of her as she did so. Eventually she stopped, exhausted, tired, maybe a little too much champagne. Avdeon took this photograph at that moment, seeing a clarity in her in this way, almost looking like she’d withdrawn from some kind of façade, and was now herself.