Okay, so the most obvious choice is the classic Marilyn Monroe picture where she is standing over the subway grate blowing cool air up her sexy dress on a hot city day—in the movie, The Seven Year Itch, with co-star Tom Ewell.

But what if you want a more original or rare Marilyn Monroe picture, one that not everyone has plastered to the bathroom or bedroom wall?

I have seen over the years some gorgeous, stunning, and rare Marilyn Monroe pictures that seem more representative of the Marilyn Monroe who was a person, too. One of my favorites is the shot of her working out.

She is laying with her back to the bench press, holding small dumbbells up in front of her. She is dressed in jeans and a bathing suit top. The photo is black and white, shot by Phillipe Halsman in Hollywood in 1952. Simple, real.

Another staged but nevertheless telling Marilyn Monroe picture is one with her in ballerina-like dress, a strapless white and gauzy number.

She is sitting on a chair, facing the camera. She is barefoot, her painted toes crossing over each other as those of a child who would fidget with her feet. She is (nervously—pretending?) hunched inward, one hand in her lap the other moving toward her face.

Marilyn Monroe picture collectors will probably already own the pin-up, Vargas Girl photo, of Marilyn naked, stretched out on red satin that matches her red lipstick, but they may not have such unique pieces as the one of her doing a Lustre Crème ad, the magazine ad she is featured in to sell Tru-Glow makeup, or Sam Shaw’s photo of Marilyn in a bathrobe, looking wistfully out of the window of what is presumably her house?

More Marilyn Monroe pictures that have appeal are the ones where she is with other celebrities.

There is a set of photos of her with an old car, a set including one photo of Marilyn leaning on the car and Sammy Davis Jr. in the foreground doing a Mr. Bojangles-style kick in mid-air. Classic. Also in the series, Sammy and Marilyne are joined by Frank Worth.

And the true collector of Marilyn Monroe pictures will have the rarest of images: Marilyn on the cover of the very first issue of Playboy, on the cover of a May 14, 1956 issue of Time (where she is depicted in sketch illustration), and on the cover of LAFF, a “humorous picture magazine”.

But the best of Marilyn Monroe pictures may be those taken before she was Marilyn Monroe.

Norma Jean is in bathing suit, on the beach, or in vibrant red sweater, standing at the shore in Mexico and captured by the early tintype photography or the brilliant color photography of William Carrol in 1945. Of course, there’s the rarest of pics of Marilyn/Norma Jean: of her as a baby, sitting on her mother Gladys’s lap at the beach…adorable as ever.