Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) was an American director, screenwriter, producer and photographer who lived in England for most of the last four decades of his career. Kubrick was known for the scrupulous care with which he chose his subjects, his slow working method, the variety of genres he worked in, his technical perfectionism, and his reluctance to talk about his films. He retained almost total artistic control, making films according to his own choices and time constraints.
On the other hand, what is less known about the great artist that he was is that before being a filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick was a photojournalist based in New York. During this first career, he notably worked for Look. His career as a photographer began in 1945, when Kubrick sold one of his photos to the magazine when he was just 17 years old. From 1946 to 1950, Kubrick worked for the magazine, doing over 300 stories about New York’s landmarks and people.
Before Stanley Kubrick sat in the director’s chair of some of the best films ever made like “2001: A Space Odyssey” or “The Shining”, he was a simple New York teenager looking for a job, of which there are millions around the world. But it is clear that even at that time, when the young man got his hands on a camera, he could not hide the talent that lay dormant in him and captured exceptional images.
Photography, Stanley Kubrick’s first love
Today, we present to you some of his most beautiful photos taken in the streets of New York from 1945 to 1950, while working for Look magazine. It was during this time that Stanley Kubrick learned what makes photography work. He quickly gained recognition for his ability to tell stories through photos, which eventually led him to filmmaking and his place in the filmmakers hall of fame.
And if you’re wondering how to turn your photos into works of art that speak to the greatest number of people and want to embark on a career as a photojournalist, he explains how to do it: “Think of story ideas, go out and shoot them , then send them to magazines. I was lucky to have understood this when I was young. I believe that aesthetically recording spontaneous action, rather than carefully posing an image, is the most valid and expressive use of photography. »
Here are some of his best shots:
