Marylin Monroe How rare is this ?

Marylin Munroe How rare is this ?

It is coming up for auction tomorrow at Sotheby's Pier 24 Photography Pilar Family Foundation selling to benefit various charities

Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962)

Self Portrait (Photo Booth Portrait)

gelatin silver print, framed, circa 1940

image: 1¼ by 1½ in. (3.2 by 3.8 cm.)

frame: 7 by 7¼ in. (17.8 by 18.4 cm.)

The photo booth photograph offered here, showing a bright-eyed and fresh-faced Norma Jean Baker (later known to the world as Marilyn Monroe), was likely taken before 1942, when she married James Dougherty at the age of 16. Coin-operated photo booths were introduced in New York City in the mid-1920s, and by only a few years later they had spread throughout the country. For only a few cents, the photo booth provided anyone the opportunity to be a model, with the bright strobes reminiscent of the pops of paparazzi flashbulbs.

Just 15 years later, Richard Avedon, himself also obsessed with photo booths, had one delivered to his studio for the creation of a spread in Esquire Magazine called 25c a Celebrity. Marilyn Monroe appeared in the feature, confidently modeling in the nude, now fully embracing the blond bombshell persona she had created for herself by the end of the 1950s

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Provenance

Gift of the sitter to a relative

By descent

Collection of owner of the Silver Screen image archive, acquired from the above estate

Swann Auction Galleries, New York, 11 December, 2014, Sale 2370, Lot 172