Check out Stanley Kubrick’s candid photos of… | Little White Lies

Check out Stan­ley Kubrick’s can­did pho­tos of 1940s New York City

05 May 2018

Words by Adam Woodward

A man and a woman in a 1940s-style scene, standing at a table with various items including tissues and jars. The image has a black and white, vintage aesthetic.
A man and a woman in a 1940s-style scene, standing at a table with various items including tissues and jars. The image has a black and white, vintage aesthetic.
A new book presents some 300 images from the filmmaker’s archives.

Long before he became a famous film­mak­er, Stan­ley Kubrick was mak­ing a name for him­self as a staff pho­tog­ra­ph­er for Look Mag­a­zine. Dur­ing a five-year stint at the now defunct lifestyle title, begin­ning in 1945 when Kubrick was just 17, he cap­tured every­day scenes in and around his native New York City, from sleep­ing cou­ples on the Sub­way to a curb-side hot­dog ven­dor to a day in the life of a debutant.

Now these can­did pho­to­graph­ic essays have been brought togeth­er for the first time in a new book, ​‘Stan­ley Kubrick Pho­tographs. Through a Dif­fer­ent Lens’, pub­lished by Taschen. The book con­tains around 300 pho­tos from the Look archives, includ­ing many pre­vi­ous­ly unseen images as well as orig­i­nal mag­a­zine tear sheets.

Get more Lit­tle White Lies

It’s a rare and fas­ci­nat­ing insight into the leg­endary director’s ear­ly career that reveals his already ful­ly-formed human­ist sen­si­bil­i­ty. Take an exclu­sive peek at a selec­tion of pho­tos below, and read more about the book at taschen​.com

Two people sleeping on a train carriage bench, wrapped in blankets.
Four people sitting on a bench in a garden, reading and talking.
Black and white image of street vendors selling drinks and snacks from a cart on a city street, with a crowd of people gathered around and traffic passing by in the background.
A black and white photograph of a man laughing and sitting at a desk, surrounded by papers.
A woman in a floral dress stands in a cluttered room, surrounded by household items.

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