Life in the Fast Lane
Bert Stern in Full Swing: From Look magazine's mailroom to photography stardom.
By Condé Nast Archive
By Ivan Shaw
Beshka in a Diane Von Furstenberg Ensemble, Vogue (1970-11-01) by Bert SternCondé Nast Archive
Bert Stern’s career didn’t start in a darkroom but in a mailroom; specifically Look magazine’s. The year was 1947, and though his tasks were menial, this young Brooklynite worked his access, making important connections.
It was at Look that Stern befriended Stanley Kubrick, then a young, aspiring photographer, and where he met Hershel Bramson, the art director in charge of promotions, who took Stern under his wing.
Two Models Wearing Knit Dresses, Vogue (1971-03-01) by Bert SternCondé Nast Archive
Bramson, who “liked only two photographers..."
"... Matthew Brady and Irving Penn,” according to Robert A. Sobieszek, author of a monograph of Stern’s work, taught his protége about composition, particularly the idea of creating triangles within the image, a central tenet of modernist design.
Model in a Green Headdress, Vogue (1970-03-01) by Bert SternCondé Nast Archive
Stern grew to love Penn’s work too, and would have an epiphany when looking at a 1948 Penn still life for Vogue.
Lauren Hutton in a Sequined Dress by Norell, Vogue (1971-11-01) by Bert SternCondé Nast Archive
On this composition, he said, “I immediately saw how, in a photograph, you’re the boss of that space. But it’s real space, real life. In photography you had to be a master of the medium, because it’s scientific.”
Logic dictated that it was time for a move; Stern left Look and became the art director of Mayfair, a small magazine for which he also took photos.
As luck would have it, Bramson became an art director for the advertising agency L.C. Gumbiner, and in 1953 he was assigned to boost sales for a then relatively unknown vodka brand, Smirnoff.
As Sobieszek tells it, Bramson went to Stern (just back from serving in the Korean War) for suggestions on who should shoot the campaign. Stern suggested Penn, who turned down the commission.
Erwin Blumenfeld was approached, too, but his ideas were too extreme, so Bramson took a chance on Stern.
The images Stern created—notably an inverted pyramid in a martini glass—were groundbreaking for the time and became iconic. Their success was such that he immediately became the in-demand advertising photographer of the time. While Stern enjoyed being on commercial photography’s fast track, he started turning his attention to editorial work.
Models Wearing Hazel Haire for Beene Bazaar Ensembles, Vogue (1971-06-01) by Bert SternCondé Nast Archive
“Advertising,” he said, “had borrowed the best elements of editorial photography and…now, I think, editorial has borrowed from the best advertising and will go on to a peak of its own.”
In 1960 Stern shot his first Vogue cover: Deborah Dixon staring out from the November 15th issue in the manner of, Sobieszek suggests, Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring. There’s an important distinction, however; unlike the famed Old Master’s young woman, Stern’s model projects the unmistakable sexuality that became his hallmark.
In 1962, when the actress was at the height of her fame, Stern became fixated with her and the idea of capturing her on camera.
“I felt there was no single black-and-white of Marilyn like the Greta Garbo picture that Steichen had done,” the photographer told Sobieszek. “I thought it was a photo opportunity, and also I liked her, and I wanted to get close to her. If I couldn’t get close to her personally, at least I could get a photo.”
With Vogue’s support, he arranged to photograph Monroe in Los Angeles at the Bel-Air hotel. The initial idea was to do a celebrity portrait session, which Stern did.
Condé Nast editorial director Alexander Liberman loved the pictures so much he decided to send Stern back to Los Angeles to do a second sitting with fashion editor Babs Simpson in tow.
His mandate? To create a fashion portfolio. As the issue went to press with these more demure photos, Monroe passed away, and they became known as “The Last Sitting.”
By the late 1960s Stern was living large and working out of a multi-floored studio where he could simultaneously shoot film and stills.
Pat Cleveland in a Diane von Furstenberg Dress, Vogue (1971-03-01) by Bert SternCondé Nast Archive
While enjoying professional success, Stern’s personal life was deteriorating as he got caught up in the excesses of the era. In 1973 he fled to Spain.
He was able to make a comeback, which was documented in a film released in the U.S. in 2013 by his wife, Shannah Laumeister, and was still working at the time of his death, in 2013.
Twiggy in Sequined Accessories, Vogue (1967-11-15) by Bert SternCondé Nast Archive
Stern’s legacy can best be described as
the shift from the old world to the new. Perfectly timed for the midpoint of the century, what Stern brought to fashion photography—sexuality, provocation, wildness—were a clear reflection of where the culture was heading, and Stern was happy to be the one to lead the way.
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