Wright Auction

Greene, was one of the earliest and best photographers working in the early days of color photography. Aside from his outstanding Monroe images, he has worked with a plethora of other celebrities, from Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Audrey Hepburn, to Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, Dizzy Gillespie and Judy Garland. Not only was he a skilled photographer but he put his subjects at ease, allowing their true personalities to shine through. Greene’s work was published in several publications including Vogue, Life and Harper’s Bazaar.

His interest in photography started when he was just a teenager. Greene was awarded a scholarship to the Pratt Institute but he did not attend. Instead, Greene apprenticed with photojournalist Eliot Elisofon and later assisted Louise Dahl-Wolfe before embarking on his solo career. In 1942, he married his childhood sweetheart, Evelyn Franklin; the pair was very much a part of the bohemian and artistic community of New York. Evelyn and Milton divorced in 1949; she later married Richard Avedon and he the model Amy Franco. By this time models, actors, actresses and musicians were frequently in and out of his New York studio as well as his country cottage in Weston, Connecticut.

Greene passed away in 1985, thinking his life’s work was succumbing to the ravages of time. His eldest son, Joshua, began a journey to meticulously restore his father’s legacy. A photographer himself, Joshua spent years researching ways to restore his father’s photographs as well as cataloging and promoting Milton’s vast body of work all over the world. As a result, Joshua established The Archives, a company committed to the restoration and preservation of photography. After spending nearly two decades restoring his father’s archive, Joshua Greene and his company are widely regarded as one of the leaders in photographic restoration and have been at the forefront of the digital imaging and large-format printing revolution.