Chicago, IL — Hilton Contemporary is pleased to announce Lawrence Schiller: Motion Pictures, a dynamic exhibition exploring the intersection of photography and cinematic storytelling through the lens of Lawrence Schiller who will turn 90 this December. Bringing together a selection of Schiller’s most iconic and rarely seen works, the exhibition highlights his unique ability to capture movement, narrative, and cultural history within a single frame.
Spanning Schiller’s prolific career, Motion Pictures features photographs taken on and off the sets of legendary films, alongside candid portraits of cultural icons including Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Muhammad Ali, and Clint Eastwood. Schiller’s role extended beyond photography while working on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1968) for which he produced a celebrated body of behind-the-scenes imagery, and also directed several minutes of the film itself. He continued to direct and produce award winning films and television shows, such as Lady Sings the Blues (1972) with Diana Ross, The American Dreamer (1971) with Dennis Hopper, the Emmy Award-winning television mini-series Peter the Great (1986), among others.
Schiller’s career also extends into photojournalism of major historic events. He was assigned to document pivotal moments in American history, including the aftermath of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. His expansive knowledge of the industry also led to a career writing for major publications and authoring numerous books.
From intimate dressing room moments to behind-the-scenes glimpses of Hollywood productions, Schiller’s photographs blur the boundaries between documentation and storytelling, offering viewers a rare perspective on the people who shaped mid-century American cinema and popular culture.
His access to Marilyn Monroe was particularly profound. He photographed her between 1960 and 1962, capturing a rare and deeply human portrait of one of the most enduring figures in American cultural history. Among these are some of the last photographs of Monroe ever taken on the set of Something’s Got to Give (1962). After this shoot, Schiller met with Marilyn at her Brentwood home on the morning of Saturday, August 4, 1962, the day before her untimely passing. Schiller celebrated Monroe’s 36th birthday with her on the set, and now the Motion Pictures exhibition will celebrate what would be her 100th birthday while honoring her enduring cultural legacy.
The exhibition, Motion Pictures, speaks to Schiller’s distinctive approach, his ability to infuse still images with a sense of motion and narrative tension. Each photograph reads like a film still, inviting viewers to imagine the moments before and after the shutter clicks. Whether capturing Monroe in a moment of quiet reflection or documenting the camaraderie of actors between takes, Schiller reveals the emotional and performative layers which exist beyond the screen.
“Schiller’s work occupies a unique space between photography and film,” says Arica Hilton, CEO and Founder of Hilton Contemporary. “He doesn’t simply document Hollywood. He interprets it, offering images that feel alive with story, atmosphere, and cultural significance.
Lawrence Schiller: Motion Pictures will be on view at Hilton Contemporary June 5th – June 23rd. An opening reception will be held on June 5th from 5–8:00 pm to commemorate what would be Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday week. Lawrence Schiller will be in attendance.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Though a childhood accident left him with impaired vision in one eye, Lawrence Schiller became an obsessive photographer; even while attending Pepperdine College, his pictures had already appeared in Life, Sport, Playboy, Glamour, and the Saturday Evening Post. Schiller’s interests and ambitions soon developed into a profession in print journalism, documenting major stories for glossy magazines all over the world, including Life, Look, Newsweek, Time, Paris Match, Stern, and the London Sunday Times. His iconic images of Robert F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bette Davis, Barbra Streisand, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, and Madame Nhu, among others are tributes to his doggedness, ingenuity, and charm as well as to his technical proficiency.
In November 1963, while on assignment for the Saturday Evening Post, he reached Dallas in time to photograph Lee Harvey Oswald. Later, he landed Jack Ruby’s final interview. After extensive interviews with the widow of Lenny Bruce in 1968, Schiller and the writer Albert Goldman published Ladies and Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce (1974); and, with the photographer W. Eugene Smith, he produced Minamata (1975), the epic pictorial chronicle of mercury poisoning in Japan.
Schiller moved into motion pictures by directing a portion of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, and Lady Sings the Blues (1972) with Diana Ross. In 1971, he produced and co-directed with L.M. Kit Carson the acclaimed documentary, The American Dreamer on Dennis Hopper. His editorial direction of The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1972) won an Oscar for Best Feature Documentary for its producer. After obtaining extraordinary cooperation from the Kremlin, in 1986, he executive produced and co-directed Peter the Great, the Emmy Award-winning television mini-series starring Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, and Laurence Olivier.
Perhaps nothing in Schiller’s career proved more remarkable, though, than his collaboration with Norman Mailer — a friendship unique in American literary history. For nearly thirty-five years the two worked closely together, on books including Marilyn (1973), The Faith of Graffiti (1974), Oswald’s Tale (1995), Into the Mirror (2002), and The Executioner’s Song (1979), for which Mailer won the Pulitzer Prize. Schiller, who conceived of the project, did much of the legwork, interviews, and research for the book, while outmaneuvering numerous other reporters to gain exclusive access to the book’s subject, Gary Gilmore, and went on to produce and direct the award-winning television miniseries based upon it, starring Tommy Lee Jones.
Schiller embedded himself into the so-called “Dream Team” defending O. J. Simpson, and with his unique insider’s perspective on the case, co-wrote (with James Willwerth) the New York Times number one best-selling American Tragedy (1996). His reporting on antisocial behavior soon became the basis for many books and motion pictures and documentaries for television, many of which he produced and directed.
Schiller has been a consultant to NBC News, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, and the Annie Leibovitz Studios, among many other photographic archives; and has written for The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, and other publications. Upon the death of Norman Mailer, in 2008, Schiller was named the President and Co-Founder of the Norman Mailer Center and Writer’s Colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He currently is a consultant and advisor to various estates and trusts on monetizing and preserving the legacy of noted figures in America. His historical archives reside at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.
ABOUT HILTON CONTEMPORARY
Located in Chicago’s River North and Bridgeport Art Districts, Hilton Contemporary specializes in modern and contemporary paintings, works on paper, mixed media and sculpture with a special focus on photography. Featuring internationally known artists from the United States, Northern Europe, the Mediterranean Region and the Middle East.
“Hilton Contemporary is a strong proponent of the art of Photography and Film. We do not see a divide between the two disciplines as they are the most immediate and indelible way to document the history of cultures, of people, of nations and our planet. Whether it is the history of our film industry that has changed the way we see our world, or artists making history by using FILM, moving or still, Hilton Contemporary seeks to initiate a dialogue, to bring awareness to the contemporary issues of our times.”