Description

During the late 1960s, Stock recorded the counter-culture explosion in California. He felt it his creative duty to take photos that were “essentially informational in character”, sometimes reflecting the mood of the photographer as participant, but more often than not ruminating on the “situation of the subject”. For Stock, what was happening out in the Golden State at that time was nothing less than revelationary: “Our future is being determined in the lab out West.”

Ethical standards are directly related to societies' demands, and photographers reflect those standards

Dennis Stock
© Dennis Stock | Magnum Photos

Dennis Stock was born in 1928 in New York City. 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 in 1951. Stock evoked the spirit of America through his memorable and iconic portraits of Hollywood stars, most notably James Dean. Other notable projects include his work on the jazz scene and on the California free-loving counterculture of the 1960’s. In the 1990s he went back to his urban origins, exploring the modern architecture of large cities and his later work was mostly focused on the abstraction of flowers.

Dennis Stock resided in Woodstock, New York, until his death in 2010.

© Dennis Stock | Magnum Photos

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