MARILYN MONROE: METAMORPHOSIS

There's a new Marilyn Monroe book coming out but before you get too excited, it won't be available until October 25, 2011. However, it sounds like it's going to be an amazing photo book!

Taken from the Harper Collins website, "The most lavish and comprehensive collection of Marilyn Monroe photographs ever assembled-more than half of them previously unseen."

• Marilyn Monroe: Metamorphosis features images by world-class photographers including Richard Avedon, Milton Greene, Sam Shaw, Cecil Beaton, Philippe Halsman, Andre de Dienes, George Barris, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Philippe Halsman, Willy Rizzo, Richard C. Miller, Tom Kelley, and others. 

• More than 60% of the photographs in the book have never before been published.

• Wills’ outstanding collection of rare photographs includes scores of stunningly crisp, full-color images from Monroe’s early years as a catalog model. These breathtaking shots capture the fresh-faced, innocent brunette Norma Jean Baker in her late teens and early twenties—and offer a startling contrast to the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe as a blond bombshell Hollywood starlet.

• Wills has access to the highest-quality images of Marilyn available anywhere in the world—from candids to film stills to modeling head shots, the images in Marilyn Metamorphosis wills stun casual fans and collectors alike. The interior design—by Stephen Schmidt, the designer of our amazing Photo by Sammy Davis Jr.—is elegant and rich, with rich color, spot varnish, and an elegant metallic gold color offsetting Marilyn’s image like the setting for a gem.

• Marilyn Monroe is unparalleled as an iconic photographic subject. Her influence on fashion and popular culture is enduring—young actresses and models continue to pose in homage to her famous “last sitting,” and the image of her iconic white dress billowing over a subway grate has become a cultural touchstone. Marilyn’s visual legacy is seen everywhere. She is beloved by fans internationally.

• Norma Jean Baker’s transformation into one of the most emulated and iconic Hollywood starlets is an epic American story—one that careens from a troubled childhood through bright spotlights and dark depression. Marilyn Metamorphosis offers a straightforward, cleanly designed photograph journey through Monroe’s meteoric rise and tragic undoing. From “The Rehearsal” years of a brunette Norma Jean posing in factories and on beaches, to the final chapter, “Icaras,” which contains images taken only weeks before her death, Marilyn Metamorphosis presents a visual historical record like never before seen.

There have been many Marilyn photo books-but nothing like this.

Australian-born curator and preservationist David Wills has accrued one of the world's largest independent archives of original Marilyn Monroe photographs. Now, in Marilyn Metamorphosis, he has gathered the work of every major Marilyn photographer-and dozens of unknowns-to create the most dazzling portfolio of images from every period in Marilyn Monroe's life, from her earliest sittings in 1942 till just weeks before her death two decades later. With more than three hundred full-bleed photos-including countless dazzling, unseen color photos from the very start of her career-Marilyn Metamorphosis chronicles her meteoric rise from a humble catalog model to one of the most recognized faces in history. No other book even comes close.



I can't wait to get my hands on a copy :)