Bert Stern

Bert Stern, (Bertram Stern), American photographer (born Oct. 3, 1929, Brooklyn, N.Y.—died June 26, 2013, New York, N.Y.), redefined commercial photography in the U.S. and shot iconic images of such celebrities as model Twiggy and actresses Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. His most famous photographs, however, were those taken of Marilyn Monroe for Vogue magazine just six weeks prior to her death in 1962; the images, known as “The Last Sitting,” were published in photo collections in 1982 and 2000. Stern began (1947) his photography career at Look magazine, but in 1949 he left his position as assistant art director to become the art director at Mayfair magazine. After serving for a short time in Japan during the Korean War as a movie cameraman and photographer, Stern returned to New York City as a freelance photographer. His photo taken for a 1955 Smirnoff vodka advertising campaign—of a martini glass shimmering in front of the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt—was his first major commercial achievement and pioneered the use of simple yet conceptual art in the advertising industry. He later worked for Pepsi-Cola and Volkswagen as well as Vogue, Esquire, and Glamourmagazines. Stern directed a documentary about the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959); in 1999 the film was selected for the U.S. Library of Congress’s National Film Registry.

[text from Encyclopaedia Britannica]