15 Stunning Black and White Portraits of Celebrities Taken by Norman Seeff in the 1970s and 1980s

The legendary Los Angeles-based photographer Norman Seeff has shot candid portraits of everyone from Steve Jobs to Patti Smith, but is perhaps best known for his images of musicians—The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, and Carly Simon, to name a few.

In the years 1970-1980, Seeff inaugurated his creative sessions with artists and celebrities. His photographs of musicians and actors were often regarded as the defining images of artists at the height of their career. Here's a selection of 15 amazing black and white photographs taken by Norman Seeff from between the 1970s and 1980s.

Mick Jagger

Patti Smith

John Travolta

Steve Jobs

John Belushi

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Rare Photographs of a Young Marilyn Monroe Goes Hiking in the Woods, August 1950

In 1950, LIFE photographer Ed Clark got a call from a friend at 20th Century Fox about a “hot tomato” the studio had just signed: Marilyn Monroe. The young actress had previously signed with Fox in August 1946, but was dropped after the end of her second six-month contract.

Monroe spent the following years honing her craft, taking acting classes, modeling, and befriending executives.

In 1950, she appeared in six films, including small parts in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve.
She was still mostly unknown when she joined Clark for a rustic photoshoot in the woods of Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

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Elvis Presley Playing Touch Football, 1956

Elvis Presley playing touch football at the Dave Wells Community Center on December 27, 1956. Several hundred people watched the singer pass, kick and run a touchdown. Presley joined the rough game shortly after lunch and played until dark, taking turn in line and backfield.

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Wonderful Photos of Marilyn Monroe at Tobay Beach, Long Island in the Summer of 1949

Marilyn Monroe photographed by André De Dienes in June, 1949. These beautiful pictures were taken a week after Monroe’s even more famous nude pictures.

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Marilyn Monroe, August 1953: The Lost LOOK Photos

These are the pictures of Marilyn Monroe that were taken for LOOK magazine in 1953. But only three from the album made it into the final edition. The remaining negatives, taken by photographer John Vachon in the Canadian Rockies, have been hidden away – until now.

It was yet another assignment for LOOK magazine staff photographer John Vachon. But when he arrived in Banff, Alberta, in mid-August of 1953 to shoot Marilyn Monroe on location making River of No Return, Vachon encountered an opportunity never afforded the many great photographers who took pictures of Marilyn during her short life. Due to an injured ankle that prevented her from filming, Vachon got access to Marilyn over a period of several days.

Vachon's lens captured her in a variety of contexts and countenances. Here is Marilyn the way we want to remember her: luminous, sexually charismatic, smiling radiantly — even on crutches. This extraordinary portfolio of revealing images ranges from her mugging poolside to riding high on a ski lift to nuzzling with her then-husband-to-be, the legendary Joe DiMaggio — the only time that the two posed formally together for a photographer.

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Dressing a Victorian Woman in the 1860s

At the beginning of the Victorian era, all clothing was hand-made. Because of this, dresses were expensive, and only the wealthy could afford a large wardrobe. The less fortunate wore cast-offs, clothing from second-hand shops, or sewed their own. After the invention of the sewing machine in 1851, the industry began to change. Not only was clothing less expensive to produce, it was mass-produced, and by the end of the century, ready-made dresses were available to the general public at department stores.

A Victorian woman did not simply throw on a gown over her slip and panties, though. There were many layers to achieve the picture of fashion perfection. If you ever wondered how Victorian women got dressed 150 years ago, take a look at these amazing images.

24 Stunning Photographs Taken by Stanley Kubrick That Capture Street Scenes of New York City in the 1940s

Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career. Kubrick was noted for the scrupulous care with which he chose his subjects, his slow method of working, the variety of genres he worked in, his technical perfectionism, his reluctance to talk about his films, and his reclusiveness. He maintained almost complete artistic control, making movies according to his own whims and time constraints, but with the rare advantage of big-studio financial support for all his endeavors.

Before Stanley Kubrick was a filmmaker, he was a New York City-based photojournalist for Look magazine. His photography career began in 1945 when Kubrick sold a photo to Look (he was just 17 at the time.) From 1946 to 1950, Kubrick worked for the magazine, completing more than 300 assignments documenting the sights and people of New York City.

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Beautiful Vintage Portraits of Ingrid Bergmann

Ingrid Bergman (August 29, 1915 – August 29, 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute. She is best remembered for her roles as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942), a World War II drama co-starring Humphrey Bogart and as Alicia Huberman in Notorious (1946), an Alfred Hitchcock thriller co-starring Cary Grant.

Before becoming a star in American films, she had already been a leading actress in Swedish films. Her first introduction to American audiences came with her starring role in the English remake of Intermezzo in 1939. In America, she brought to the screen a “Nordic freshness and vitality”, along with exceptional beauty and intelligence, and according to the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, she quickly became "the ideal of American womanhood" and one of Hollywood’s greatest leading actresses.

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Beautiful Vintage Portraits of Grace Kelly in the 1950s

Grace Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.

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Snowy Scenes in New York City in the Early 1900s

Some stunning vintage photographs captured snow scenes in New York City in the early 1900s.