the photographer dennis stock passed away last month at the age of 81. i heard the news about a week afterwards, and have spent some hours since touring various online galleries devoted to his work. if you have been a fan of hollywood and its stars of the 1950s and 60s, or if you're a jazz enthusiast, you may find many of these images wonderfully familiar. if you have time in the coming days, i'd encourage taking a look at a multimedia presentation, the self-assigned photographer, that mr. stock himself narrates. or if you'd rather move through the images at your own pace, here's a link to his gallery on the magnum site.
back in high school (or freshman year of college) i bought james dean revisited, and until very recently, it had been sitting on the shelf in my bedroom at my parents' house (gathering no dust, thanks to mom).
i remember my favorite images (the whole series of him taking katherine dunham's dance class, him with his bongo drums --did his bare feet make him seem more real to me? one of him, in his sailor-striped shirt, standing in his west side apartment, so tiny, like ship's quarters. and one of him, in indiana, reciting the poems of james whitcomb riley at the dinner table (i still love that one). but in essence, i really only cared about what james dean was "doing" in the photos. but i seem now to be looking at them, trying to imagine mr. stock himself--what he was thinking, doing, saying, even where he was standing. (it would probably do me good to try to figure out his settings.)
in any case, now i see the awesome tree, the reflection in the ice, the tubas and the music stands. i see geraldine page for the first time, really. and his shoes.
i like some of mr. stock's california images, too.
of his jazz photos, this might be my favorite...
i hope you find some that you like too.
(the new york times also has a nice short piece on their "lens" blog, which mr. stock himself followed. i love that he would take the time to offer encouragement and praise to his colleagues via the blog.)
