At home with Hollywood’s favorite photographer | CNN (2024)

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On November 17, 1961, a 27-year-old Canadian photographer named Douglas Kirkland photographed one of the world’s biggest stars: Marilyn Monroe. Taken for the cover of Look magazine’s 25th anniversary, the images show Monroe lying on a bed, swathed in white sheets, staring seductively at the camera.

Subsequent to this legendary encounter, the young man from Fort Erie, Ontario would become one of Hollywood’s favorite photographers. The images of Monroe, taken less than a year before her death, would arguably be his most well-known, in a career that now spans six decades.

In memory, Marilyn Monroe -- who died 53 years ago, on August 5, 1962 -- is perpetually vital and beautiful. That's the way photographer Douglas Kirkland saw her when they met in 1961. "She was like the girl next door," he recalls. "She wasn't this superstar. She laughed easily and was very comfortable to be around." Kirkland's photographs of Monroe have been collected in the book "With Marilyn: An Evening/1961."

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Kirkland, a staff photographer for Look magazine, wanted "the hottest photographs I could get" for the publication's 25th anniversary issue. Monroe knew just how to help. "I know what we need," she told Kirkland. "We need a bed with a white silk sheet -- it must be silk -- Frank Sinatra records and Dom Perignon champagne, and I know we'll get good pictures."

Kirkland had made his name with photographs of Elizabeth Taylor and Judy Garland, but he was only 27 and admittedly nervous. "I must confess I woke up during the night on more than one occasion, wondering if I was in over my head," he said.

Monroe was two hours late for the session at a Los Angeles photography studio, but once she arrived, things went smoothly. Kirkland remembers being impressed. "What I saw step through the doorway was like a gleaming figure -- very special, brilliant," he said. "To me, she didn't seem to walk. She almost floated in slow-motion."

Monroe could be known as a handful on the movie set. Billy Wilder, who directed her in "The Prince and the Showgirl" and "Some Like It Hot," said he was "too old and too rich to go through this again." But Kirkland said she was different when shooting stills. "She liked photographers," he said. "She liked the creativity she could have with the still photographer. She could be herself."

Monroe was not the fragile creature she has occasionally been described as. She had lost weight before the photo session -- she'd just recovered from an illness -- but she was forthright and sexy. She came out wearing a white robe, slipped it off and climbed into bed. "For a boy from a small town in Canada, this was unbelievably exciting," Kirkland said.

The two had an instant chemistry, Kirkland said. "I did not say to Marilyn, 'Do this, do that.' We just flirted and played."

Moreover, Monroe was comfortable enough with Kirkland that, midway through the session, she told everyone else to leave the room. "That's when I did my strongest pictures," he recalls. "We were frankly flirting like crazy, and I did not stop. I just kept taking pictures as quickly as I could." (However, there was no hanky-panky, he said.)

Kirkland's shoot was in late 1961. He had hoped to work with Monroe again, but he never got the chance: While shooting in France the next year, he saw the headline, "Marilyn est mort" -- "Marilyn is dead." Perhaps ironically, because of her untimely death she'll be forever young, he said. "Marilyn is remembered as a very special individual," Kirkland said, noting her freshness, her sex appeal and her good nature. "She came along and made it fun in front of the cameras. She liked to play, and she played Marilyn very well."

In bed with Marilyn Monroe

Shooting the stars

Kirkland started out as an assistant to Irving Penn when he first moved to New York at the age of 24. After an early stint working for Look, he joined Life magazine as a staff photographer. He worked there in the ’60s and ‘70s – an era often referred to as the golden age of photojournalism.

Known for his charming and gentle demeanor, Kirkland has served as the sole photographer on the sets of hundreds of films, from “The Sound of Music” to “Titanic.” His extensive archive of A-list portraits includes Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, John Travolta, Michael Jackson, Brigitte Bardot and Andy Warhol.

Over the years, his work has been exhibited all over the world, and is in the permanent collections of museums such as the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Known for his charming and gentle demeanor, Kirkland has served as the sole photographer on the set of hundreds of films.

‘It’s not just me behind these photos’

Kirkland, now 82, lives in the Hollywood Hills with his wife and business partner, Françoise. They work side by side on all his shoots, exhibitions and books.

“It’s not just me behind these photos, it is both Françoise and I,” he told CNN.

Photographer Douglas Kirkland and his wife and creative partner Francoise Kirkland at their home in the Hollywood Hills.

The pair met 50 years ago in Paris on the set of an Audrey Hepburn film that Kirkland was working on at the time. The daughter of Hepburn’s publicist, Françoise came to visit the studio one, where she encountered a handsome photographer who had just arrived from New York.

Kirkland, 82, lives in the Hollywood Hills with his wife and business partner Françoise, who plays an integral role in his work. They met 50 years ago in Paris on the set of an Audrey Hepburn film.

“He was so jet-lagged, he slept with his arms behind his neck and his legs propped on a desk. It gave me a chance to just look at him for 20 minutes without him even knowing,” Françoise said. Their romance is still evident in their rapport, and it’s clear they both share a passion for beautiful imagery.

When asked what’s next for them both, Kirkland replies, “With whatever time I have left – being 10 or, if I’m lucky, maybe 15 years – I want to continue taking photos under any circ*mstance. But, most importantly, I want to be with this beautiful woman by my side.”

"Each shoot is about an inner vibration and without that, it can be a challenge. I become hypnotized by what I am looking at until I feel I have a shot," Kirkland said.

Françoise adds: “Douglas would shoot anything that interests him. He could build a studio, find the perfect light that surrounds him anywhere without the dependency of a team or a big production. This is why I love how he works. He hardly realizes how great of a photographer he truly is.”

‘Freeze Frame: Second Cut’

To mark 60 years in the business, Kirkland is releasing a 10th-anniversary expanded edition of one of his best-selling collections. Featuring additional photographs and new accompanying text, “Freeze Frame: Second Cut” is a compilation of 590 photographs of intimate film scenes and candid celebrity portraits.

Over the years, his work has been exhibited all over the world, and is in the permanent collections of museums such as the National Portrait Gallery in London.

In addition, he is staging a new retrospective exhibition, “Douglas Kirkland: Beyond the Lens,” from April 26 to May 10 in Beverly Hills. A new project, a book of abstract alphabet imagery, will follow in 2018.

"Whether he cajoles or whispers, his endearing natural persona remains to get the shot he's looking for. I've seen him sit on one folded leg for over four hours when shooting Nicole Kidman in 'Australia.' He could hardly move for days after that," Françoise said.

Given his extensive oeuvre, which of Kirkland’s past shoots would he do differently?

“All of them,” he said. “There is no reason to believe that the only image captured is the best you could have done. I always believe that I could have done better.”