Lemn Sissay - The Portraits That Shape Us

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:08]Hi, my name is Lem Cece and I am here at the National Portrait Gallery amongst this photograph by Ceil Beaton of Marilyn Monroe. What is beautiful about this piece is the the contrast between the background and the light being solely on her. It feels like the light's coming from within her. You could say that she is looking towards a very bright future, but within 5 years, she would no longer be alive. She's my secret hero. I have like a little family out there of people who are fostered, adopted, or orphaned, and yeah, they're my little secret kind of family, actually. So, Marilyn Monroe grew up in care, fostered by 10 different foster parents. So the moment that she formed a relationship that was with a parental figure, they then disappeared and that is the constant of her childhood and then she's left into adulthood with no point of reference to be able to recall the memory of her as a child which is why her most famous quote is childhood plays out and I know through my own experience and through the experience of others that that experience of being in care plays out in your adult life. Take these as the family photographs that she's never had. Okay, that's what you have here. You know, the camera actually catches the essence. It's not just the manipulation of light. It is the inner strength to be their best regardless of what has happened to them.

[00:01:37]And that I think is what she's pushing through in her photographs. And I think she's conscious of it. She knows how to work a camera and that takes skill and intelligence over a lifetime. She was fiercely intelligent. Knowing how to present beauty is as important in this industry as the actual beauty in itself.

[00:01:56]And people often forget that the intelligence it takes to work in this environment. One of the key lessons to take from Marilyn Monroe's story is provide the best environment for young people who are in care so they can find out what they love. So what is it? Is it violin lessons? Is it swimming? Is it acting? Is it poetry? like get your child to be in as many things as you can afford so that they can eventually choose what they love. Marilyn Monroe found I think what she loved. You're not an actor because of your trauma. You're an actor and an artist because that's who you are. Allow a person who's been in care to find what they love and then to to flourish in it. She died when she was 36. And so these images, these portraits of her are what allows us to celebrate her 100th birthday this year.

[00:02:49]I would love to know which portrait inspires you this celebration day.