Last month, we spoke with photographer (and former Playboy contributor) Douglas Kirkland in the days leading up to his 50-year retrospective in Los Angeles, which featured iconic images of everyone from a sun-kissed Brigitte Bardot playing cards on a Mexico floor in 1965, to a toothy Jack Nicholson gripping his Oscar statuette in ‘75.
On a rainy November night in 1961, a young and green Canadian photographer named Douglas Kirkland found himself in a Hollywood studio with nothing but his camera, a bottle of Dom and the most famous woman in the world.
On November 17, 1961, a 27-year-old Canadian photographer named Douglas Kirkland photographed one of the world’s biggest stars: Marilyn Monroe.
Taken for the cover of Look magazine’s 25th anniversary, the images show Monroe lying on a bed, swathed in white sheets, staring seductively at the camera.