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Photographer and artist Mary Ann Lynch, who has been capturing offbeat Marilyn sightings worldwide since 1992, attended the recent launch of Larry Schiller’s Marilyn & Me : A Memoir in Words and Photographs, at New York’s Steven Kasher Gallery.

Here are some of Mary Ann’s exclusive images, with personal commentary, taken during the event.

We can also look forward to hearing more from Mary Ann Lynch, who promises: “There’ll be more to come on Lawrence Schiller and his career extraordinaire, epitomized by his tribute to Marilyn, the story of their unexpected, unlikely professional relationship during her last two tumultuous years. It was a relationship that would change both their lives at the time…and his forever.”

Mary Ann Lynch

Photographs from Lawrence Schiller’s “Marilyn & Me”

opening receptions, May 30 and 31, 2012

Steven Kasher Gallery

521 W. 23rd Street, NYC.

The show runs through June 30, 2012.

Schiller’s extraordinary color poolside photograph of Marilyn in June 1962, on the set of “Something’s Got To Give,” her last and unfinished movie. Marilyn died August 5, 1962. In 2011 Schiller decided to undertake this ambitious project, a memoir in words and photographs, to appear during the 50th anniversary of her passing. He succeeded with class and gusto, bringing out two separate versions of the memoir and mounting a photographic exhibition moving about Europe and the United States. 

The crowd was shoulder to shoulder and constant, with many crowding the desk where a sample copy of the ($1000/$2000) Taschen art edition of “Marilyn & Me”, with its spectacular collection of b&w and color images, many never before published, could be seen.

Here’s what kept people so interested at the desk — a sample of the Taschen art edition of “Marilyn & Me” by Lawrence Schiller that they could go through — but just one or two people at a time. I waited patiently for my turn to make a photograph. The boxes beneath the desk contain the book.

This four-page foldout offers a stunning reveal of Marilyn when opened. It dramatically illustrates both Marilyn’s rapport with Schiller and the brilliance of the art direction of the Taschen production. The entire book is orchestrated in a layout and rhythm that’s both poetic and cinematic. Schiller’s intimate photographs tell a story even without text. However, the same text is in both the Taschen and Nan Talese/Doubleday books.

Guests waiting to have their book (or books, many bought multiples) signed wound their way through both rooms of the gallery. The wait was worth it to watch Schiller personalize each copy with a flourish.

The wall photograph is the first important portrait of Marilyn Schiller ever made, while photographing her on and off the set of “Let’s Make Love” in 1960. It is the cover of the Nan Talese/Doubleday compact edition of Schiller’s memoir, “Marilyn & Me.” Each chapter opens with a small black and white photograph. It makes for an intimate read and at the $20 price point can be had by all. Those who knew Marilyn to be quite the reader can imagine her curled up on the couch looking at it herself. And she would have appreciated having “Dom” served at the reception.

Gallerist Steven Kasher (left) and Lawrence Schiller

John Buffalo Mailer (at right), and friend