Yet, I am not sure the times are anymore about idealizing people become icons (but not quite myths, though in France we use both words similarly) , and being in love with a sublimized (de-)incarnation. Sounds too deja-entendu and trivial for me. Party chit-chat.

DAH, is that another of your clever paradoxes :-) ? an essay from Audrey about people she knows so privately, but says very very few words about (words do not need), and Yuri’s, about an icon which is nothing but public, and unleashes from people words of personal love/amity.

http://www.life.com/image/3225515/in-gallery/23130

http://www.life.com/

And I found a gallery on Marilyn there, before she was Marilyn…

http://www.life.com/image/last/in-gallery/23130

There are other galleries on her too…May be you guys already knew about these, but I just wanted to share

hope you had a good stay over this way david..

i was being slow.. been doing 12 hours infront of the computor editing the past couple of days..
flickering eyes.
the living victim apparel was so much more moving.. although the dead celebrity apparel gets some people much more excited.

chairs
david

i thought i was being cleverly paradoxical (obviously not) by publishing these two posts simultaneous….

dead celebrity apparel vs. living victim apparel …….with neither person “there”….

i thought surely someone would pick up on that one as a conversation “take off” point…or, maybe it was just too obvious to mention….

hey, i am Euro jet lagged and was up at 2am sweeping the floor, so forgive the early morning ramble…

cheers, david

I remember distinctly two things about that discussion.

1.) Me thinking, Wow look at how all the metal is worn off from Garry’s thumb advancing the film, jeez, I think it would be really cool to hold the camera that Garry solved all those cluttered compositions with (I still feel it would be cool to hold that camera!) and

2.) the second thing I remember to my enthusiastic response was John Gladdy basically saying ‘So What!, it’s a camera! Get over it!

I suppose that sums it up ;-) Love ya John!

competent portraits which would, as ben says, suit a sunday supplement.. in that context i would probably enjoy it more.. half drunk after a big sunday roast..

the gushing comments about Marilyns relationship to the subjects makes me sad for the celebrity obsessed culture we live in.
some of them are.. well.. odd to say the least and i found myself quickly not caring what they thought about her..

her life was tragic.. used.. abused.. discarded..
i can see that this is a tribute of sorts and in that sense it achieves something.. for me though it is a sad indication of the state of affairs we now live in, where a dead celebrity is perceived as a friend by complete strangers.

:o)
d

(for me) it’s a pretty weak concept, with not particularly good portraits to back it up. the main aesthetic problem for me is that they are all “well lit” – but in a completely uninteresting way. its like looking at lots of editorial portraits by competent bu uninspired photographers from a sunday colour supplement, one after another.

the design elements of the slideshow are poor. really bad font, and badly laid out.

sorry to be so harsh, but this is how i saw it.

a tutor of mine used to ask the question “why should i care?” when critiquing our work.. i dreaded and hated that question, but in some ways it has relevance. why should i care about a bunch of people who think they have a connection with a dead celebrity?

Absolutely love the opening with the three shots of the dresses and the visual reference to the famous cheeky shots with her dress blowing up.

What I was going to say is that I just can’t help thinking that Yurys personal obsession with Marilyn perhaps interfered with him realizing this opportunity fully. while the photos no doubt operate as personal momentos of the whole experience for Yury, and fascinating documents for those fascinated by Marilyn, as a group I feel that they don’t carry enough weight to get past that point.

Just a thought, maybe some of us should take turns pretending to be Jim. I miss him.

Gordon L.

Great comments. You have given us a lot to think about.

I can agree with much that has been said here. This is surely a fascinating project from a many different perspectives.

I must say Yury, For many of the photos, I get more from the quotes than I do from the accomanying portrait. I’m afraid you are not showing me the emotion and power you describe. I have to agree with John that I wish some of the photographs were stronger. There are several that are really outstanding, but some are frankly dissapointing given the opportunity. On their own, stripped of the context, they appear as a collection of curious snaps of people holding up a dress.

On the positive side, I like several of the images a great deal, I can’t see them at the moment because of my crummy server, but the bare-shouldered woman at the window sticks in my mind for one. There is also lots of impressive stuff on Yurys site, and he’s clearly a capable guy, so maybe I’m missing something.
I just can’t help thinking that someone

G Lafleur