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A century after her birth, Marilyn Monroe<\/a> remains an alluring enigma. The actress, model, and singer is ingrained in American iconography, yet no matter how many photographs one pores over, there\u2019s a sense you\u2019ve only scratched the surface. To commemorate her birth, ACC Art Books<\/a> has released Marilyn Monroe 100: The Official Centenary Book<\/em><\/a>, a publication with the Marilyn Monroe Estate. Throughout its enveloping pages (including an introduction by the New Yorker<\/em>\u2019s Rachel Syme), 275 images articulate the numerous facets of Monroe, from the Norma Jean years to her very last photo shoot on the beach in Santa Monica.<\/p>\n The early pages of Marilyn Monroe 100<\/em> explore the star\u2019s publicity photography and her relationship to the press, laying the groundwork for the book\u2019s core: a detailed account of Monroe\u2019s work with the key photographers she collaborated with. There are Cecil Beaton\u2019s images of the \u201cinfectiously gay performance\u201d Monroe delivered in the Ambassador Hotel; Richard Avedon\u2019s evocative \u201cSad Marilyn<\/a>\u201d studio portrait; and, of course, Allan Grant\u2019s photographs taken in Monroe\u2019s Spanish Colonial-style Brentwood home. These images would be published in Life<\/em> on August 3rd, 1962, alongside her final interview, the day before her untimely death.<\/p>\n The book takes care to highlight the intimate relationships\u2014both professional and personal\u2014she nurtured with photographers such as Milton H. Greene, Eve Arnold, and Sam Shaw. Some might be familiar with Shaw as the photographer who conceived the skirt-blowing image for The Seven Year Itch<\/em><\/a>, but the creative partnership between him and Monroe spanned roughly a decade. \u201cShe was a friend first and foremost,\u201d says Melissa Stevens, Shaw\u2019s granddaughter and director of the family archives<\/a>. The two met in Los Angeles in the early 1950s when Monroe offered to drive Shaw to and from set because, being a New Yorker, he didn\u2019t have a driver\u2019s license. \u201cSam recalled that even though Marilyn was young and out of work during that time, she did not ask him to pay for gas,\u201d Stevens says. \u201cHe later wrote, \u2018sex, lovers, beauty, fame\u2014she never thought of fortune. She never fought for money except for the power money can buy: a good story, great directors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When Monroe moved to New York in 1954, Shaw introduced her to his friends and showed her around the city. \u201cHe recalled that she loved New York and New York loved her,\u201d Stevens says. Their creative partnership continued during this reinvention period on the East Coast, including a series in Amagansett. \u201cOn the beach, Sam gave Marilyn certain word cues, such as \u2018Medusa\u2019 and \u2018Aphrodite\u2019 and she responded with various poses,\u201d Stevens shares, citing it as one of her favorite series due to the range and complexity Monroe embodied. \u201cShe is silly, sullen, jumping for joy, in love, alone, relaxed, contemplative, posing and not posing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n After Monroe\u2019s death, Shaw abstained from engaging with the tabloid frenzy and did not show his photographs of her out of respect. \u201cHe was uncomfortable profiting from his images of his friend,\u201d Stevens explains. After about a decade passed, he finally began to share these photographs, and after Shaw\u2019s death in 1999, the family discovered an archive of previously unseen photos of Monroe, along with letters between the two. \u201cThe letters between Sam and Marilyn are still a bit of a mystery,\u201d says Stevens. She posits that Monroe must have saved the letters in her personal papers and they disappeared after her death. One day, the handwritten notes resurfaced in an auction, and the Shaw family was able to buy them back. \u201cWhen they arrived and we read them, we laughed and cried because they are very Sam, totally his voice, his humor, his insight, with cartoons and jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n What Shaw appreciated about Monroe, and what continues to resonate a century later, was her uncompromising free spirit. \u201cShe had personal freedom, but she did not live in a time and place that allowed her to be free,\u201d Stevens says. \u201cShe gave herself permission and validation even when others did not. And she also found the joy and humor within the difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n Below, a selection of photographs from Marilyn Monroe 100: The Official Centenary Book<\/a>,<\/em> available now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n