Photography News

Photographer Dennis Stock, 81, who was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer a few weeks ago and developed pneumonia in recent days, died Jan. 11 at his home in Sarasota, Fla., Magnum confirmed.

Dennis Stock's best known picture of James Dean crossing New York's Times Square in the rain has been credited with defining 1950s cool and immortalizing the young actor who died shortly after the photograph was published in Life magazine. Many referred to the picture as "the boulevard of broken dreams."

"His singular most iconic image would definitely be his James Dean walking down Times Square with a cigarette in his mouth, because James Dean became an icon of a generation and that image represented so much to that generation,"said Lubell, director of Magnum Photos.

Dean wasn't the only star he shot. Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne were among his subjects.

"Art is a well-articulated manifestation of an aspect of life. I have been privileged to view much of life through my cameras, making the journey an enlightened experience", Stock once said.

Dennis Stock was born in New York City in 1928. At the age of 17, he left home to join the United States Navy. In 1947 he became an apprentice to Life Magazine photographer Gjon Mili and won first prize in Life's Young Photographers contest. He joined Magnum Photos in 1951 and became a full member in 1954. He was one of the first Americans to join the agency, alongside Eve Arnold and Burt Glinn. Between 1957 and 1960, he turned his interest to jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Sidney Bechet, Gene Krupa and Duke Ellington for his book Jazz Street.

The photographer, who lived in New York and had a home in France, also worked as a writer, director and producer for television and film. He also ran numerous workshops around the world.

Photo: Jordillar Fotos

Diana Topan