Marilyn Monroe Ballerina

Milton Greene was born in New York City in 1922 and was no stranger to the photographic medium in a time where photography was becoming a deeply informative photojournalistic as well as a highly celebrated editorial practice. After winning a scholarship at Pratt University, Greene became an apprentice to photo journalist Elliot Elisofen, and later assisted Diana Vreeland’s, Louise Dahl-Wolfe of Harper’s Bazaar. A lifetime of work building such a portfolio archived the many faceted personalities of the fifties and sixties, widely circulated in publications such as Life, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue Magazine. Along with celebrities such as Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and Alfred Hitchcock, Greene developed his notoriety from his body of work around America’s classic iconic sweetheart, Marilyn Monroe. The two cultivated a close friendship after Green photographed Monroe for an editorial assignment with Look magazine, which engendered a business partnership. They together formed Marilyn Monroe Productions, a film production company that would go on to produce Monroe’s films such as Bus Stop (1956), The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). While Monroe lived in New York City studying acting under teacher and director Lee Strasberg, Monroe stayed with Greene and his family in Connecticut on their farmhouse during which time Green arranged some 53 photography shoots of his iconic subject. This included the infamous, “The Black Sitting” coined by Time Life Inc. to include one of the three most popular images of the 20th century. Milton Greene died in 1985, however, his photographs, prints, and posters continue to be published and exhibited in major catalogues, museums, and galleries as well as highly represented in many private collections. Milton H. Greene´s breadth of work has been preserved and celebrated in remembrance of his life, and the lives he so well captured.

Find a broad range of photography on 1stDibs today.

The first permanent image created by a camera — which materialized during the 1820s — is attributed to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The French inventor was on to something for sure. Kodak introduced roll film in the 1880s, allowing photography to become more democratic, although cameras wouldn’t be universally accessible until several decades later. 

Digital photographic techniques, software, smartphone cameras and social-networking platforms such as Instagram have made it even easier in the modern era for budding photographers to capture the world around them as well as disseminate their images far and wide. 

What might leading figures of visual art such as Andy Warhol have done with these tools at their disposal?

Today, when we aren’t looking at the digital photos that inundate us on our phones, we look to the past to celebrate the photographers who have broken rules as well as records — provocative and prolific artists like Horst P. Horst, Lillian Bassman and Helmut Newton, who altered the face of fashion and portrait photography; visionary documentary photographers such as Gordon Parks, whose best-known work was guided by social justice; and pioneers of street photography such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, who shot for revolutionary travel magazines like Holiday with the likes of globetrotting society lensman Slim Aarons.

Find photographers you may not know in Introspective and The Study — where you’ll read about Berenice Abbott, who positioned herself atop skyscrapers for the perfect shot, or “conceptual artist-adventurer” Charles Lindsay, whose work combines scientific rigor with artistic expression, or Massimo Listri, known for his epic interiors of opulent Old World libraries. Photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron was given a Kodak camera as a child. Later, she shot on Polaroid film before buying her first 35mm camera in her teens. Barron's stunning portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol and other artists chronicle a crucial chapter of New York’s cultural history.

Throughout the past two centuries, photographers have used their medium to create expressive work that has resonated for generations. Shop a voluminous collection of this powerful fine photography on 1stDibs. Search by photographer to find the perfect piece for your living room wall, or spend some time with the work organized under various categories, such as landscape photography, nude photography and more.