{{Short description|American commercial photographer (1929–2013)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Bert Stern | image = | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = Bertram Stern | birth_date = {{Birth date|1929|10|3|mf=y}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|06|26|1929|10|03|mf=y}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | field = {{ubl|Portrait photography|Fashion photography}} | works = {{ubl|''The Last Sitting''|''The Pill Book''|''Jazz on a Summer's Day''}} }}
'''Bertram Stern''' (October 3, 1929 – June 26, 2013) was an American commercial photographer.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Vanity Fair |url=http://www.vanityfair.fr/culture/art/diaporama/bert-stern-photographe-de-marilyn-monroe-brigitte-bardot-catherine-deneuve/22#bert-stern-et-ses-muses-de-marilyn-bardot-16 |title=Bert Stern et ses muses |language=French |date=26 June 2014 |issn=0733-8899 |access-date=June 26, 2013 |archive-date=September 4, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904185514/http://www.vanityfair.fr/culture/art/diaporama/bert-stern-photographe-de-marilyn-monroe-brigitte-bardot-catherine-deneuve/22#bert-stern-et-ses-muses-de-marilyn-bardot-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="nytobit">{{cite news |first=Paul |last=Vitello |authorlink=Paul Vitello |newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/arts/bert-stern-elite-photographer-known-for-images-of-marilyn-monroe-dies-at-83.html |title=Bert Stern, Elite Photographer Known for Images of Marilyn Monroe, Dies at 83 |page=B17 |date=26 June 2013}}</ref>
==Biography== Stern was the son of Jewish immigrants and grew up in Brooklyn. His father worked as a children's portrait photographer. After dropping out of high school at the age of 16, he gained a job in the mail room at ''Look'' magazine. He became art director at ''Flair'' magazine, where Stern learned how to develop film and make contact sheets, and started taking his own pictures. In 1951, Stern was drafted into the United States Army, sent to Japan and assigned to the photographic department.
In the 1960s, his heavy use of amphetamines led to the end of his marriage to ballerina Allegra Kent. He was one of the last photographers to shoot Marilyn Monroe, in June and July 1962 for Vogue magazine. Monroe died in August 1962. These sessions became known as ''The Last Sitting''; The 2571 photographs taken on these sessions were published after her death in ''The Complete Last Sitting'' in 1992. In the 1970s, Stern moved to Spain to recover from his drug addiction. By the late 1970s, Stern returned to the U.S. to photograph portraits and fashion.<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite web |title=Bert Stern |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10146775/Bert-Stern.html |work=The Telegraph |date=27 June 2013}}</ref> In 1979, he published ''The Pill Book'', along with journalist Lawrence Chilnick. This A to Z guide of the most prescribed drugs in the US, which sold 18 million copies, included color photographs of the pills by Stern.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/bert-stern-photographer-who-became-best-known-last-sitting-marilyn-monroe-8682291.html|title=Bert Stern: Photographer who became best known for the 'Last Sitting'|website=Independent.co.uk|date=July 2013}}</ref>
==Filmography== * ''Jazz on a Summer's Day'' – a concert film set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, directed by Bert Stern and Aram Avakian
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name}} * {{FMD photographer}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stern, Bert}} Category:1929 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Photographers from Brooklyn Category:American portrait photographers Category:United States Army soldiers Category:Vogue (magazine) people Category:American male writers Category:20th-century American Jews Category:21st-century American Jews