Lawrence Schiller // Marilyn & Me

“You’re already famous, now you’re going to make me famous,” photographer Lawrence Schiller said to Marilyn Monroe as they discussed the photos he was about to shoot of her. “Don’t be so cocky,” Marilyn replied, “photographers can be easily replaced.” The year was 1962, and Schiller, 25, was on assignment for Paris Match magazine. He already knew Marilyn — they had met on the set of Let’s Make Love — but nothing could have prepared him for the day she appeared nude during a swimming pool scene for the motion picture Something’s Got to Give.

Marilyn & Me is an intimate story of a legend before her fall and a young photographer on his way to the top. Schiller’s original text and photographs—over two thirds of which have never or rarely been published—take us back to that time, and to the surprising connection that allowed Marilyn to bond with a kid from Brooklyn, a kid with a lot of ambition but very little experience. It’s a story that has never been told before, recounted with tact, humor, and compassion. The result is a real and unexpected portrait that captures the star in the midst of her final struggle.