During
the 1940s and through to the 1960s, Milton H. Greene photographed
Hollywood and many of it's stars such as Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren,
Marlene Dietrich, Sammy Davis Jr., James Stewart, Cary Grant, Audrey
Hepburn, John F. Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Alfred Hitchcock,
Lauren Bacall, Dizzy Gillespie, and many others.
Greene,
however, is most famous for his compelling images of good friend
Marilyn Monroe. During the mid-1950's Marilyn Monroe lived with
Milton H. Greene and his family at their farmhouse in Connecticut.
During this time, he captured some of the most beautiful, comfortable
and intriguing images of her. Milton's son Joshua was about seven
years old at the time; today he says his father photographed Marilyn
52 times during his lifetime and the "Marilyn Collection" comprises
of over 4000 images.
Milton H. Greene died in 1985. For decades his life-time of work
sat in storage because the film was deteriorating and was considered
unprintable. Unbeknownst to Greene and other photographers of that
era, the professional Ektachrome E-2 and E-3 film used to capture
images proved to be unstable. In 1992, Milton's eldest son Joshua
discovered that the images could be digitally restored. Joshua Greene
met Mac Holbert, co-founder of Nash Editions in California, who
showed him how to scan the photographs into the computer, clean
them up and bring them back to life.
In 1995, a truck emptied 14,000 pounds of mildewed papers and file
cabinets filled with faded vintage photographs and deteriorating
film to Joshua Greene's office in Oregon. To date, Joshua has restored
approximately 400 rarely seen and never seen before images of Marilyn
Monroe and other Hollywood greats.
The restoration work is tedious, requiring a minimum of 20 hours
of work per image. Using dual processing Apple computers, The Milton
H. Greene Archives, Inc. manipulates large files, hand-finishing
each image pixel by pixel to recapture, enhance, rebuild, alter,
and ultimately breathe life back into photographs. The Archives
have been heavily involved in the beta-testing of Hewlett Packard's
newest Designjet printer and UV inks. The resulting images are projected
to have a life span of over 200 years.
The Benham Gallery has available a limited number of prints by Milton
H. Greene. We believe art is best sold on a one-to-one basis and
will generally provide any reasonable information about the arist,
including the artist's resume, background, and the availability
of books and prints for sale. The Benham Gallery accepts most major
payment types and transactions can be carried out by e-mail, phone,
mail, or better yet - by stopping by in person so we can familiarize
you with the the work. The pictures on this site are no match compared
to seeing the real thing in person.
