Beschreibung:

Vintage gelatin silver photograph on fiber-based paper. Rubberstamp on back, "Please Credit / Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos Inc. / 17 East 64th Street / New York 21, N.Y." along with pencil number "C4/35." 34x26.3 cm (13½x10¼"). Rare vintage printing of a photograph by Dennis Stock of the young motion picture star James Dean, just bursting on to the cinematic scene. The photograph was part of a series taken by Magnum photographer Dennis Stock creating a photo essay on the rising star for Life Magazine which was published on March 7, 1955. The large format original photograph is clearly vintage, from January 1955, the Magnum rubberstamp without a zip code. There is some glue residue on the verso at the top, likely where it was glued to a story board when the layout of the issue was formatted. The photograph was acquired by the present consignor at a recent estate auction, and the deceased owner was known to have worked at Life Magazine in the distant past. It seems evident it lay in Life's editorial files until it was disposed of, likely given away to the employee. Though there are many later printings of the iconic image available on the market, vintage images from 1955 are exceptionally rare. The Magnum Photo website describes the relationship between James Dean and the young photographer Dennis Stock Stock and Dean met in the winter of 1954-55 (late December or early January) at a party hosted by film director Nicholas Ray at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont hotel. Dean was awaiting the release of his first significant film, Elia Kazan’s East of Eden, while Stock was working as a Magnum photographer. During a conversation bolstered with the discovery they had a mutual friend in common, Dean invited Stock to a preview of his new film. It was only after witnessing Dean’s devastating portrayal of Cal Stark in East of Eden that the photographer fully realised his new friend’s immense talent; he was seeing the birth of a major star. The following day Stock floated the idea of a visual biography past Dean that would document his Indiana roots, the New York theatre areas where he learned his craft, and rise to Hollywood. It was a novel, original proposal because photographers did not usually document actors’ childhood homes. What followed would set the course for one of the best-known photosets in film history. The documented travels for Dennis' photo shoots of James Dean show that the New York (residence and in-town) photographs were done in January, 1955, and the Fairmount (hometown) photographs were done in early February, 1955. The images from the photo shoots were submitted to Life in early to mid February for the article "Moody New Star" running in the March 7, 1955 issue.