Bluffer’s Notes
This photographer’s iconic work for Life magazine helped to define an era
The genius of Dennis Stock
Who was Dennis Stock?
Dennis Stock was a photographer for the magazine Life, and a long-time member of the prestigious Magnum photo agency.
Stock preferred to work in depth on long-term projects, and shot documentary photo essays on subjects such as jazz musicians, 1960s hippie communes and locations including Alaska and Hawaii. However, he is best remembered for his brilliant individual images, including portraits of Audrey Hepburn and Frank Sinatra.
Why is Stock in the news?
Stock’s 1955 assignment to photograph a then-unknown actor, James Dean, is the subject of a new film, Life, directed by Anton Corbijn. Stock is played by British actor Robert Pattinson.
What was Stock’s big break?
After doing military service in the US Navy, he landed a job as an assistant to
Life photographer Gjon Mili. Then, in 1951, he won first prize (and a cheque for $3,000) in a Life competition for young photographers. That same year, he was invited to become an associate member of Magnum Photos by founder member Robert Capa. By the tender age of 23, Stock had well and truly arrived.
Most famous photo?
No question: it has to be the moody image of James Dean walking in the rain in Times Square, New York (above). It was taken in 1955, as part of Stock’s two-month photo essay on the charismatic young actor, who was on the cusp of global fame as the star of the film Rebel Without a
Cause. The picture was taken just seven months before Dean’s tragic death.
What was Stock like as a person?
“He was such a pain in the neck to deal with in the business of Magnum. I used to affectionately call him Dennis the Menace,” says picture editor John G Morris. Stock was very direct and didn’t hold back from expressing his opinions. However, far from putting him on a collision course with ‘difficult’ subjects such as actor Humphrey Bogart and jazz musician Miles Davis, it helped him form a strong bond with them.
What was his later work like?
Stock shot a wide range of subjects, including landscapes associated with St Francis of Assisi, abstracts, architecture, and close-up studies of flowers. He continued working on personal projects until his death in 2010, aged 81.
You may not know…
As well as shooting iconic pictures, Stock was himself a model in one: Andreas Feininger’s ‘The Photojournalist’ (1951). In this striking portrait, which merges man with machine, the 23-year-old’s face is mostly obscured by his Leica, with the camera’s lens and viewfinder becoming the photographer’s ‘eyes’.
Where can I see Stock’s work?
To tie in with the 60th anniversary of Dean’s death, a collection of Stock’s images from his photo essay, Dennis Stock: James Dean, has recently been published by Thames & Hudson, priced £25/$40.