Peter Stackpole began his career at
age 21 and quickly rose to the upper echelon of photojournalists.
Having West Coast photographer and filmmaker Willard Van Dyke as a mentor,
Stackpole became an informal member of the seminal photography group f/64 in
1934. The same year, Stackpole undertook one of his earliest and most ambitious
projects—photographing construction of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. By
the end of 1935 his works were exhibited at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern
Art, and he signed as a freelance photographer for “Time” magazine.

In 1936 Stackpole became one of the
four original full-time photographers for “Life” magazine, along with
Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstadt, and Tom McAvoy. Stackpole maintained his
relationship with the magazine for more than 20 years.

This portrait of Alfred Hitchcock, shot
the same year Hitchcock filmed “Notorious,” was taken in the director’s
Hollywood apartment. The image was made at Hitchcock’s suggestion, as part
of an unpublished photo essay. “Mere et Enfant” (1921), the Pablo Picasso
painting hanging above the fireplace, was in Hitchcock’s collection at the time. This
photograph is a rare print because its negative, as well as many others by Stackpole,
was destroyed in a fire in 1987.