Page 93 - 21 WestLicht Photo Auction

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DENNIS STOCK
(1928–2010)

James Dean on Times
Square, New York 1955
Gelatin silver print, printed in
the 1970s / 1980s
33 × 22,7 cm (13 × 8.9 in)
Signed by the photographer
in ink in the margin, numeri-
cal notation in pencil on the
reverse
PROVENANCE
Estate of James A. Fox (former
Magnum editor in chief)
LITERATURE
William Norton & Co., In Our
Time: The World As Seen by
Magnum Photographers, 1989,
p. 388; Dennis Stock, Made in
USA, Ostfildern 1995, p. 83;
Hans-Michael Koetzle (ed.),
Photo Icons. Die Geschichte
hinter den Bildern. 1928–1991,
Cologne 2015, p. 191.
€ 2.800 / € 5.000–7.000

Dennis Stock, who was brought on to work at Magnum iconic photograph James Dean on Times Square, among
as a »Hollywood photographer« by Robert Capa in 1951, other pictures. It was to posthumously fuel Dean’s image
met James Dean in 1954 through the director Nicholas as the tortured, melancholy, boisterous rebel. Chance and
Ray at the preview of his film East of Eden. Suspecting staged elements coincided perfectly — the rain, Dean’s
that Dean would become a star, Stock proposed an essay stoop, the puddle, the reflection of the actor’s contours,
about the then twenty-four-year-old actor to Life maga- the cigarette in the corner of his mouth, Times Square
zine. The photo series turned into a legacy. Both photo- disappearing in the mist — all this compositional finesse
graphs seen here were taken in early 1955, when Stock and these happy accidents helped the photograph to
accompanied Dean to New York City and his childhood become the icon it deserves to be. A few months later, on
home of Fairmount, Indiana. Stock and Dean first spent September 30 of that year, Dean died in a crash with his
a week in rural Fairmount, a small town that had shaped Porsche Spyder on Highway 466.
Dean, having been raised there by his uncle’s family after
his mother’s early death. It was to be his final visit to his
home. While Fairmount shaped Dean’s life, New York
made him a fledgling movie star. There, Stock took the

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