Marilyn and Me

Marilyn Monroe and Palm Trees No. 2

The subject of the photograph in this post is a monumental statue of Marilyn Monroe in Palm Springs, California.  It’s called “Forever Marilyn” and was made by an artist named Seward Johnson.  It’s quite large, standing at 26 feet tall, and is a bit of a tourist attraction in Palm Springs.  People line up to have their picture taken at the base of the statue and usually come up to about her knee.

I wanted to photograph it too, obviously in a different kind of way.  On the day I was there, there was a small crowd of people lined up to have their picture taken with the statue, as I assume typically is the case.  It wasn’t a problem, the angles I was shooting from both kept me out of people’s way, and my compositions were such that people standing at the statue’s base weren’t in my frame. 

Still, the demarcation between my purpose for being there and theirs was quite different.  I wonder what they thought of me?  My own feelings on the experience are kind of mixed.  On the one hand, I find the photography I do personally fulfilling, and that it has an important purpose too (what that is exactly, I’m not entirely sure of, maybe that’s a subject for a different post).  Also, I think that you can’t photograph in public places unless you’re prepared to not feel self-conscious about it, which is something that I (mostly) have become able to do.  Still, there is a lingering sense of being alone in a crowd.

Candidly, I don’t know much about Marilyn Monroe, except that she has become a pop icon with a large following to this very day.  From what Iittle I have read about her, she seems to me to give off a bit of an alone in a crowd vibe too.  I don’t know, maybe sometimes alone is better, but it still feels lonely.  Does that come across in my photograph, I wonder?