Between June 1 and July 18, 1962 just two weeks before Marilyn died, George Barris became the last photographer to shoot Marilyn Monroe. Known as the “Last Photos” this series of photographs, over 250 in all, were taken on the beach in Santa Monica and at a private home in the Hollywood Hills. The photos are all shot with natural lighting and with no artifice as to reveal the “true” Marilyn, and leave us with a window of what she was possibly thinking in the last days…

George Barris was an American photographer best known for his portraits of Marilyn Monroe. Born on June 14, 1922 in New York, NY, he discovered a passion for photography at the age of six, when his brother gave him a box camera for his birthday. Barris went on to work as a photographer in the United States Army’s Office of Public Relations during the early years of World War II, where he covered General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s victory homecoming celebration. At the end of his service, he freelanced in Hollywood, photographing celebrities during the 1950s and 1960s, including the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch, where he and Marilyn Monroe became close friends. Barris was one of the last photographers to capture images of Monroe before her death in August of 1962. Bereft after the death of his friend, the photographer moved to Paris, where he lived for the next 20 years. In 1995, he published Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words, which contains photographs and notes taken during the final sessions with her. Barris died on September 30, 2016 in Thousand Oaks, CA at the age of 94.