Dennis Stock can boast an auspicious
beginning to his photographic career, first working as apprentice to Gjon Mili
in 1947, then taking first prize in Life magazine's Young Photographers
Contest four years later. In 1951 he joined the international photographic
agency MAGNUM, and his work thereafter appeared in magazines such as Life,
Look, and Paris Match. Stock has produced a rich and varied
body of work, ranging from portraits of James Dean in the 1950s to numerous
documentary films through his company Visual Objectives, Inc.

Between 1957 and 1970, Dennis Stock
photographed the world of jazz in the United States, creating memorable portraits
of great jazz figures such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Charlie
Parker. His photographs evoke the moody intensity of the music, the atmosphere,
the studios, and the clubs through individual gestures and enigmatic
expressions. Suggestive elements like a tensely clutched cigarette, the
spasmodic interruption of smoke intercepting the vibrating horn, and the saxophone's
role as a framing device for Charlie Parker's half-illuminated face, shatter
the deceptive stillness of this dynamic portrait. Dennis Stock's photographs
have been collected and exhibited widely in the United States, Europe, and
Japan.