First show of photos of Marilyn Monroe [VIDEO]

Provisional show

The journalists saw portrait photographs of the famous MM, small photographs from cultural events in which she took part, provisional shots from photo sessions and film sets, and a few private snapshots.

Last year in June, Przedsiębiorstwo Hala Ludowa (Centennial Hall Company) bought 3,298 photographs from a collection of photographs by Milton H. Greene at an auction organised by DESA. These photographs were put up for commission sale by the Foreign Debt Service Fund in liquidation (later called ‘FOZZ’). Among them there is a collection of photographs presenting Marilyn Monroe.

Photographs by Milton H. Greene, a famous photographer of stars, will be available at an exhibition to be opened in Wroclaw on the 4th of July. For the time being, the first 47 photographs can be watched for two days by 300 persons who won invitations in competitions organised by the Wroclaw media. The photographs are not exposed yet. They are presented on two long 20-metre tables under a glass pane in grey passe partout. It is a very provisional show – a foretaste of the July exhibition. The proper exhibition consisting of the rich collection of photographs of the greatest icon of American pop culture – Marilyn Monroe – will be one of the attractions related to ESK 2016 events. The winning bid price proposed for photographs was 6.4 million PLN, and the value of the entire collection is estimated at ca 20 million PLN.

Not only Marilyn Monroe

‘The collection consists of portraits, film stills, fashion photographs and photo stories. Other portrayed stars include Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor, Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Groucho Marx, Audrey Hepburn, Alfred Hitchcock, Romy Schneider, Laurence Olivier, Ava Gardner, Claudia Cardinale, Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Catherine Deneuve and others,’ tells Marek Stanielewicz. ‘The July exhibition will be composed of photos of Marilyn Monroe that are being shown today and 15 others that will be a harbinger of the next exhibition,’ reveals the curator. ‘I’m in the process of preparing the entire content. It is a huge resource, and you can't take photos out of it on impulse, because it's my duty to ensure a high level of the exhibition.’

The maintenance, proper cataloguing and conservator’s care of the collection is the responsibility of the State Archives, which recognised the collection as national property. ‘The photos will be deposited with us. The term “national property” may sound awkward, but it’s a very valuable collection presenting persons who are recognisable icons of pop culture, which obliges us to protect them,’ explains Andrzej Biernat, the deputy general manager of the State Archives.

‘These are photographs of huge artistic value – this goes not only for Marilyn Monroe, but also for a constellation of other artists presented there,’ says Rafał Dutkiewicz, the mayor of Wroclaw.

A blonde in mass imagination

‘These are beautiful genuine photographs in various formats, on various sorts of paper, with descriptions, stamps, signatures and traces left by – let’s call it by its name – idiots who stuck them with an adhesive tape at an exhibition or framed a photo for printing with a pen, or in contemporary passe-partouts combined with photography without imagination and an awareness of consequences,’ thinks Marek Stanielewicz.

The same view is shared by Krzysztof Gierałtowski, a photographer specialising in portraits of Polish stars. ‘I regard Milton H. Greene as the elder brother of my photography,’ he laughs. ‘The photographic output of Milton H. Greene was outstanding for those days and now it is luckily available in Poland. The outstanding value of these photographs is a result of two factors. Of course, Marilyn Monroe was a popular figure who cared about self-promotion, but she was a different person during photo sessions. As if she had wanted to release the tension caused by the discipline that was imposed by directors on film sets. She was relaxed, but ready to create her own image. Eventually, thanks to her, a naive blonde became a part of mass imagination.’

By buying photographs, Przedsiębiorstwo Hala Ludowa acquired also the rights to exhibit them in all fields, including the right to make them available to the audience. It may also disseminate photographs in catalogues of exhibitions and all kinds of publications aimed at promoting photography.

‘The right to Marilyn Monroe’s image is a different matter,’ says the lawyer Aleksandra Auleytner from the DZP law office. ‘Hala Ludowa also intends to sell souvenirs bearing MM’s image, such as mugs, T-shirts or pens. We are negotiating this with The Estate of Marilyn Monroe, which holds rights to the actress’ image.’