Nude

Andre de Dienes (born Andor György Ikafalvi-Dienes) was a Hungarian photographer, noted for his work with Marilyn Monroe and his nude photography. Dienes was born in Torja, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Turia, Romania). He left home at 15 after the suicide of his mother and travelled across Europe mostly on foot until his arrival in Tunisia. In Tunisia he purchased his first camera, a 35mm Retina. Returning to Europe he arrived in Paris in 1933 to study art, and bought a Rolleiflex shortly after. Dienes began work as a professional photographer for the Communist newspaper L'Humanité, and was employed by the Associated Press until 1936, when the Parisian couturier Captain Molyneux noted his work and urged him to become a fashion photographer. In 1938 the editor of Esquire, Arnold Gingrich offered him work in New York City, and helped fund Dienes' passage to the United States. Once in the United States Dienes worked for Vogue and Life magazines as well as Esquire. When not working as a fashion photographer Dienes travelled the USA photographing Native American culture, including the Apache, Hopi, and Navajo reservations and their inhabitants. Dissatisfied with his life as a fashion photographer in New York, Dienes moved to California in 1944, where he began to specialize in nudes and landscapes. As well as Monroe, Dienes also photographed such notable actors as Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, Ingrid Bergman, Ronald Reagan, Jane Russell, Anita Ekberg and Fred Astaire.