Dietrich Through the Lens

“Glamour is what I sell,” Marlene Dietrich once said. “It’s my stock in trade.” 

Marlene Dietrich remains one of the most enigmatic figures of twentieth-century cinema. This collection brings together rare and iconic photographs spanning her extraordinary career, from glamorous studio portraits and film-set moments to intimate encounters away from the spotlight.  

Featuring both world-famous and never-before-seen images, the book includes portraits by world-renowned photographers: Clarence Sinclair Bull, Cecil Beaton, George Hurrell, Lin Mayberry, Lee Miller, Cornel Lucas, Angus McBean and John Engstead as well as portfolios of eight renowned photographers – Eugene Robert Richee, Don English, William Walling Jr, Eve Arnold, Lawrence Fried, Norman Parkinson, Douglas Kirkland, and Terry O’Neill.  

An illustrated essay by former head of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, Terence Pepper OBE tells the stories behind the images, from childhood photographs of Dietrich through to her years in cabaret.  

The historical sweep and stylistic variety of the photographs throughout this book creates a rich visual tableau, shedding light on Dietrich’s famously mysterious character, which combined the sultry cabaret singer, the fierce patriot, the lover, the mother, and the independent thinker.