Taken near Niagara Falls in 1953, some recent photos of movie star Marilyn Monroe were recently unveiled. During a relaxed break from work, the 27-year-old international stardom posed for her make-up artist Allan 'Whitey' Snyder, who died 1994. Marilyn would ask him to photograph her to clam her nerves before filming.

The pictures were released after Snyder's archive of photos were bought at an auction this week. There are dozens of pictures from the sets of other films including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Prince and the Showgirl, Niagara and Something's Got to Give.

The archive includes letters and other ephemera and is expected to fetch thousands of pounds when it all goes under the hammer at auction.

Darren Julien, of Julien's auctioneers, said: Whitey Snyder died in the 1990s and these items have come from his estate, so they have never been seen before. Whitey was Marilyn's make-up artist for 16 years and had unlimited access to her. They met when Monroe had her first screen test at 20th Century Fox in 1946.

They were taken by someone who was extremely comfortable with her, and you can tell by the poses and the expressions on her face, Julien added.

Julien estimates that the collection of photographs will fetch between $40,000 and $100,000.