Dennis Stock

"The Photojournalist", portrait of Dennis Stock by Andreas Feininger, 1951. Feininger took this now-iconic photograph for Life Magazine, after Stock won first prize in a competition for young photographers.

Dennis Stock (July 24, 1928 – January 11, 2010)^[1] was an American photojournalist and documentary photographer and a member of Magnum Photos. He was born in New York City and died in Sarasota, Florida.

Career

Stock served in the United States Army from 1947-1951. Following his discharge, he apprenticed under photographer Gjon Mili. In 1951, he won a first prize in a Life magazine competition for young photographers. That same year, he became an associate member of the photography agency Magnum. He became a full partner-member in 1954.

In 1955, Stock met the actor James Dean and undertook a series of photos of the young star in Hollywood, Dean's hometown in Indiana and in New York City. He took a photograph of Dean in New York's Times Square in 1955 (the year Dean died) that became an iconic image of the young star. It appeared later in numerous galleries and on postcards and posters and was one of the most reproduced photographs of the post-war period. The black and white photograph shows the actor with a pulled up collar on a casual jacket and a cigarette in his mouth on a rain-soaked, gray day.

From 1957 until the early 1960s, Stock aimed his lens at jazz musicians, photographing such people as Louis Armstrong, Billie Holliday, Sidney Bechet, Gene Krupa and Duke Ellington. With this series of photographs he published the book Jazz Street.^[2] In 1962, he received the first prize at the International Photo Competition in Poland. In 1968, Stock left Magnum to start his own film company, Visual Objectives Inc., and made several documentaries, but he returned to the agency a year later, as vice president for new media and film. In the mid-1970s, he traveled to Japan and the Far East, and also produced numerous features series, such as photographs of contrasting regions, like Hawaii and Alaska.^[3] In the 1970s and 1980s he focused on color photography of nature and landscape, and returned to his urban roots in the 1990s focusing on architecture and modernism.

Death

Dennis stock died of colon and liver cancer in Sarasota, Florida.^[4]

Awards

• 1991, Advertising Photographers of America, USA
• 1962, 1st Prize, International Photography Competition, Poland.
• 1951, 1st Prize, "Life" Young Photographers Contest, USA

Publications

• Alaska, USA: Harry N. Abrams, 1978
• The Alternative: Communal Life in New America, UK: Collier-Macmillan, 1970
• America Seen, France: Contrejour, 1980, ISBN 978-2859490270
• Brother Sun, USA: Sierra Club Books, 1974
• California: the Golden Coast, with Philip L. Fradkin, USA: Viking Press/Studio Book, 1974, ISBN 978-0670199693
• California Trip, USA: Grossman Publishers, 1970, ISBN 978-0670199761
• The Circle of Seasons, with Josephine W. Johnson, USA: Viking Press, 1974, ISBN 978-0436496509
• Edge of Life: World of the Estuary, USA: Sierra Club Books, 1972
• Flower Show, USA: Rizzoli, 1986; Impressions, fleurs, France: Mengès, 1986
• A Haiku Journey, Japan/USA: Kodansha International, 1974
• The Happy Year, USA: Channel Press, Inc., 1963
• Hawaii New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988, ISBN 978-0810910768; 1991, ISBN 978-0792447122
• I Grandi Fotografi : Dennis Stock, Italy: Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri, 1982
• James Dean: Fifty Years Ago New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2005, ISBN 0810959038; France: La Martinière, 2005.
• James Dean Revisited, USA: Viking Press/Penguin Books, 1978, ISBN 978-0140049398; USA: Shirmer & Mosel/Chronicle Books, 1987, ISBN 978-0877014713
• Jazz Street, USA: Doubleday, 1960
• Jazz Welt, Germany: Verlag Gerd Hatje, 1959
• Living Our Future : Francis of Assisi, USA: Franciscan Herald, 1972
• Made in the U.S.A., Germany/USA: Cantz, 1995, ISBN 978-3893226399
• National Parks Centennial Portfolio, USA: Sierra Club Books, 1972, ISBN 978-0871560582
• New England Memories, USA: Bulfinch Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0821217498
• Plaisir du Jazz, France: La Guilde du Livre, 1959
• Portrait of a Young Man, James Dean, USA: Kadokawa Shoten, 1956
• Provence Memories, USA: New York Graphic Society, ISBN 0821217151; Bullfinch Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0821217153; Provence, France: Le Chêne, 1988
• Saint Francis of Assisi, with Lawrence Cunningham, USA: Harper & Row, 1981, ISBN 978-0584970807; Franziskus: Der Mann aus Assisi, Switzerland: Reich Verlag, 1981
• This Land of Europe, Japan/USA: Kodansha International, 1976, ISBN 978-0870112768
• Voyage Poétique à Travers le Japon d'Autrefois, Switzerland: Office du Livre, 1976

References

1. ^ David W. Dunlap, Dennis Stock, Photographer of Intimate Portraits, Dies at 81 The New York Times. Retrieved on January 15, 2010.
2. ^ Magnum Photos Biography Retrieved January 10, 2011.
3. ^ Claire O'Neill, Photography Master Dennis Stock Dies National Public Radio. Retrieved on January 15, 2010.
4. ^ Dennis Stock: The man who made Jimmy live forever The Independent. Retrieved on January 21, 2010.

External links

• The New York Times "Lens Blog"
• MAGNUM Photos – Official Website
• Dennis Stock Photograph of James Dean, 1955

Persondata
Name	Stock, Dennis
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 24, 1928
Place of birth
Date of death	January 11, 2010
Place of death