Rangefinder Magazine
June 2002

JOSHUA GREENE: by Peter Skinner
Restoring And Preserving A Legacy

While on assignment for Look, Milton was sent to Europe in the summer of 1955, where he photographed a medley of European and American movie stars. Milton photographed Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrar at their home in Rome. This low-key yet elegant portrait captures Audrey in a beautiful dress on the set of “War and Peace.”

There are those who make history, those who record it and, if the history-makers are to leave a legacy, those who restore and preserve that legacy. And so it is with photographer-turned-preserver-of-history, Joshua Greene, who has devoted his recent life to ensuring that the work of his father, celebrated celebrity photographer, Milton H. Greene, lives on.

When Joshua Greene, himself a successful editorial and commercial photographer, inherited the priceless collection that his father had compiled during an illustrious career, he recognized the huge responsibility being placed on his shoulders. For over four decades Milton Greene had photographed celebrities in such an inimitable and eloquent style that he is credited with other luminaries such as Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn and Norman Parkinson, for taking fashion photography into the realm of fine art.

And while Milton’s subject list is a star-studded assembly of artists, actors, musicians, and celebrities from virtually every field of creative endeavor, he is best remembered for his unique collection of Marilyn Monroe. Milton first met Monroe in the early 1950s while on assignment for Look magazine, the publication which in 1953 gave him a reported $100,000 non-exclusive contract, at the time a huge sum for a photographer to command. The two became close friends and eventually formed their own film production company which produced “Bus Stop,” “The Prince and “The Showgirl.” For a time, Marilyn lived with Milton and his family in their Connecticut farmhouse, and it was during this period that he created some of the most beautiful images ever made of Monroe. Over four years, Milton photographed Marilyn in countless sessions in the process assembling a vast collection of images of the famous and ill-fated actress, many of which have never been published.

When Milton died in August, 1985 at age 63, he left his entire collection to his two sons, Joshua and Anthony Greene. Up until that time, Joshua had been blazing an editorial photography trail in New York, establishing not only his own career but doing it with such flair and distinctive style that his work captured the attention of art directors and editors from Manhattan to Australia. He had worked with and learned from his father and for a time managed Milton’s New York studio. Though trained in beauty and fashion, Joshua followed his heart photographing people, home furnishings and food for editorial publications. Among the leading magazines which assigned him work were Vogue, House & Garden, Elle, Decor, Victoria, House Beautiful and People In Style. During that same period, from the mid-1970s, he produced the first of many books with Lee Bailey, Kevin Crafts, Mary Emmerling, D. D. Allen and Sheila Cheffetz. It was a hectic, frenetic lifestyle and an exciting episode in the young shooter’s life, in some ways not so different from his father’s. Now living in the peaceful little town of Florence, Oregon—a far cry from the madding New York crowd—Joshua looks back on that period with satisfaction, but with no regrets at leaving it.

	Above: Marilyn Monroe Los Angeles, 1953. In September of 1953. Milton was sent to Los Angeles by Look magazine to photograph a budding actress named Marilyn Monroe. This photograph, a result of their first work together, reveals and captures Marilyn’s innocence, which all of us have been drawn to for generations. This image was published for the first time in 1999, though has never been exhibited.

Actually, he had left it some years before moving to Oregon. He had taken time off to journey around the world on a trip unencumbered by loads of camera equipment or the commitment of assignments. It was a soul and mind cleansing experience, preparing him for other ventures. On his return to the U.S., he accepted the opportunity to be a visual consultant on a Hollywood movie. It was then that he became familiar with filmmaking and its numerous processes, perhaps most important the flexibility and power of digital editing. At that moment his future role in life, and the technological way to achieve it, became clearer. Deep down he always knew that preserving Milton’s collection was incumbent on him. Now he knew how it could be done, even though he had no illusions that at the beginning, and for a long time thereafter, it would undoubtedly be a labor of love.

From being a successful photographer, Joshua suddenly found himself travelling inexorably down the Macintosh-Adobe Photoshop path and working in a language that he scarcely knew existed: one of bits, bytes, and pixels. With the guidance of his digital hero Mac Holbert of Nash Editions, he immersed himself in the process, knowing that in it lay the answer to the dilemma of how to restore and preserve the collection bequeathed him. “I knew that Milton’s work had to be saved and preserved but until I came across digitization I wasn’t sure how I could accomplish such a huge task,” he said.

It should be kept in mind that Milton Greene’s collection numbered about 300,000 images; the Monroe collection alone contains more than 3000 images, most of which are unpublished. Many of these remarkable photographs were on early Ektachrome color films, such as those used from the 1940s up through the mid-1960s, and were extremely unstable and vulnerable to the effects from air, moisture and sunlight. Not as unstable were the black-and-white negatives and prints, but they still required preservation.

	Marilyn Monroe “Bus Stop” 1956. Taken on the set of “Bus Stop” in 1956, this photograph of Marilyn looking up through the bed rails is exquisite. First published in Milton’s Marilyn this image has never been exhibited until now.

“Nearly all these early emulsions and processes were extremely unstable and subject to deterioration and fading. Fortunately, today’s technology and digital imaging products such as Photoshop 6.0 [and now 7.0], have given us the ability to create high-resolution scans of the originals and then be able to manipulate these large files, hand-finishing each image pixel by pixel to recapture, enhance, rebuild, alter, and ultimately breathe life back into photographs that would otherwise be beyond restoration,” said Joshua. And yes, it is tedious and time consuming, each image requires a minimum of 20 hours’ work, and sometimes as much as 60 hours.

However, being able to create these high-resolution files has given Joshua and his highly skilled team of digital imaging experts the ability to reproduce digitally defined, fine art photographs in any form or medium.

Serendipity played its part in both how Joshua bumped into the technology on which he would base his restoration and preservation project and later on where he would base the operation. The first fortuitous event was working on the Hollywood film set; the second was chancing upon Florence, Oregon through an invitation to visit a friend, who was building a restaurant in town. The small community appealed to him so he relocated there in 1993.

The Milton H. Greene Archives, of which Joshua is president, is the company he founded and dedicated to the restoration, preservation and printing of fine art photography. And while the Milton Greene collection is the cornerstone of the business, The Archives also works with other collections: those of David Sutton, a freelance photographer of the same era as Milton who worked extensively on film sets and whose images of John Wayne and Frank Sinatra are classics of the genre; and of Art Kane, the well known art director and photographer whose first famous photograph, of jazz musicians, was actually made with a camera borrowed from Milton Greene.

This is a complete view of the various layers created in Photoshop that were used in the restoration of this priceless image. Each layer represents a task done to the image—hair, dress, background, and so forth. Saved as layers these, operations can be accessed individually.	Image as it was before restoration. Marilyn Monroe Los Angeles, 1953. This stunning image of Marilyn, complete with evening dress and mink stole was from their first sitting together in Los Angeles, 1953. Published for the first time in the CD booklet of the “Blonde” soundtrack, this recently restored image has never been exhibited.	Image after the full process of restoration.

This is not a field overflowing with players. And there’s a very good reason for that: money, or lack thereof. As Joshua puts it: “It’s very hard to leverage what we do into a reasonable amount of revenue.” But his perseverance has paid off and finally, after seven or eight years, his labor of love has reached a point where he is confident that what is being accomplished by The Archives is not only satisfying creatively and spiritually to him and his team, it’s generating revenue. The Archives has grown to employ five fulltime workers and five freelancers who work from project to project.

Joshua Greene is the first to commend those who have supported him along the way, especially Mac Holbert, “the guru” of fine art digital printing of Nash Editions. Holbert is the former road manager for Crosby, Stills and Nash, whom Joshua met at a workshop in Manhattan Beach, CA, and who became Greene’s mentor.

Feeding and satisfying the creative soul —by bringing new life to old images—was painstaking but relatively easy by comparison with the commercial aspect. Not so easy was generating revenue. That facet was based on a business plan to license stock use of some images and create limited edition prints of others. It’s now coming together, thanks to a collaborative effort between The Archives and Hewlett Packard, nicknamed The HP Solution.

“For several years we have been heavily involved in the beta-testing of Hewlett Packard’s Designjet printers and UV inks. The prints we make on the HP 5000PS UV printer using Hahnemühle media, watercolor paper and Photo Rag, are projected to have a life span of over 200 years. These prints are sharper than standard photography and because the imagery is controlled digitally, we have more capabilities over the subtle values in the image,” said Joshua.

This successful collaboration has been taken another step. The Archives and Hewlett Packard partnered to produce the first exhibition of Milton’s newly restored works. “Portraits of an Era” contains 61 fine art images of well known personalities such as Grace Kelly, Judy Garland, Sophia Loren and Sammy Davis Jr. and includes 33 of Marilyn Monroe. This stunning exhibit of classic images opened in Seattle and will tour nationally and internationally. Many of these images have never been seen before, or offered as limited edition fine art prints. To make them truly limited edition, The Archives is making available only 500 of each print on a worldwide, seven-year basis. If the image is to be reprinted, it will not be in that same size or format.

While working with historical collections is a journey back in time and the detail work can be tedious, the discovery process is new and exciting—especially when Joshua comes across images he has not seen before. Also exciting is using his technical skills, trained eye, and judgment to transform what might be a jaded, faded, Ektachrome slide more than 40 years old into a bright, crisp, digital image that resonates with the essence of the original.

As a photographer fluent in the language of light, Joshua fully understands how that element should be treated in quality, quantity and color. How to rejuvenate the texture and hue of the clothing, and the ultimate look of the restored image, is a combination of knowing the era in which the photograph was made and educated judgment—gut instinct based on experience.

Few photographers get the opportunity to play such a key role in the longevity of historical collections such as these. And fewer still have the good fortune to be intimately familiar with the photographers and their subjects. In Joshua Greene’s case, he was around when many of the images were made. In fact, in the Greene “family album” is a delightful shot of two-year-old Joshua photographing Marilyn Monroe on the set of “Bus Stop.”

Joshua Greene knows he is fortunate to hold in his hands this collection of photography history. But that good fortune might also be a mixed blessing. With it comes the challenge of restoration, preservation and channeling the results into a viable commercial operation. That commercial aspect is vital. Otherwise the legacy of photographers such as Milton Greene, David Sutton and Art Kane would be limited, destined not to reach the audience deserved. It’s not a responsibility that Joshua Greene takes lightly. As stated at the opening of this article, there are those who make history, those who record it and those who restore and preserve it. Quite simply, photography needs people like Joshua Greene and The Archives.

[Editor’s Note: At writing, The Archives was planning a workshop titled “The Passage: Photography, Photoshop and Prints,” which was to be limited to 15 participants and held on location in the Florence, OR area. For information about this and other activities and exhibits go to www.archivesmhg.com or call 541-997-4970.]

Peter Skinner is communications director for the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and is a writer/photographer living in Anacortes, Washington.