작품 상세

Vintage silver print 29,3 x 21,5 cm (11.5 x 8.5 in) Photographer's agency stamp, neg no. stamp ("56 7-5-1") and various notations in unknown hands on the reverse LITERATURE "Moody New Star", in: Life, New York 1955, March 7, p. 125f. [same series]; Dennis Stock, James Dean Revisited, New York 1978/Munich 1986; Thomas Buchsteiner/Markus Hartmann/Dennis Stock (eds.), Dennis Stock - Made in USA. Photographs 1951-1971, Ostfildern 1995, p. 69; Hans-Michael Koetzle, Photo-Icons 1827-1991, Cologne 1996/2005, p. 232-241; Claudia Springer (ed.), James Dean Transfigured: The Many Faces of Rebel Iconography, Austin 2007, p. 188. This picture was taken in February 1955, when Stock was commissioned by the magazine Life to accompany the 24-year-old film star to New York and to his childhood home (it was to be his last home visit: in September of the same year, he had a fatal accident with his new Porsche Speedster). Dean had recently completed the filming of East of Eden, in which he laid the foundation of his meteoric fame and his image as an impetuous, melancholy rebel in the role of Cal Trask. When posthumous fame made him an idol, this feature story also had a lasting influence on Stock's career. Rural Fairmount, where Dean grew up with his uncle's family following the untimely death of his mother, had influenced him profoundly. Stock took photographs of him with pigs, cows and in his former classroom. While out with his little cousin Markie, Dean happened to discover the name of his character on the gravestone of one of his ancestors. There are several images of this motif, all closely resembling each other, and some of the prints were annotated with wrong negative numbers - meaning that the photograph was dated 1956 in several publications too (an impossibility, given the facts). The present variant shows relatively little of the graveyard and more of the protagonist. Given the tension between Dean's gaze out of the picture frame and those elements pointing inward, from his hand on Markie's shoulder to the child's turning towards the grave, this is the image's most dynamic version.