This was Kubrick's first piece for Look. It appeared in the June 26, 1945 issue. Below it is Kubrick's name as it appeared in the acknowledgments for the same issue.
This is a transcript of the text that appears at the top of the following image:
by John Morgan
On viewing any of director Stanley Kubrick's masterpieces, it becomes immediately apparent that extreme care and precision is practiced for each and every frame of his films. This is one of many elements that make Kubrick unique as a director. Many commentators have speculated that this is probably the result of the origins of Kubrick's career: namely, his apprenticeship as a still photographer. Strangely, while this fact is widely known and acknowledged, to my knowledge not a single commentator has ever gone back and blown the dust off of Kubrick's photographic work. This page is an attempt to rectify this situation.
On his thirteenth birthday, Kubrick has told us, his father presented him with his first camera. Kubrick immediately took to photography, and it soon became one of his favorite hobbies. It was while he was still in high school, at age 16, that Kubrick happened to snap a photo of a newsstand owner on the morning following FDR's death. He soon sold the photograph to Look, a well-known news and photo magazine in its day, for $25.
Due to his total lack of interest in public school, Kubrick barely managed to finish, and soon found himself out of school and without any prospects for enrollment at the college level. In a fortuitous move which Kubrick has claimed was more an act of generosity than of appreciation for his skill, Look decided to employ him as an apprentice photographer. Over the next several years, Kubrick worked as a staff photographer, working on both "grunt" assignments and his own inspirations. It is the latter in which his budding talents can most clearly be detected.
The question now arises: is the theory that Kubrick's cinematic style has its origins in his photography borne out by the facts? Judge for yourself. Most of Kubrick's Look work is extremely pedestrian in nature (only to be expected considering the nature of the assignments he was given), but occasionally one of the pieces, particularly his photographic essays, proves interesting. Due to the large volume of work that Kubrick produced for Look, I have only included the pieces I think to be of particular interest here.
The most striking thing about the pieces I've included on this page are their subject matter. As you will see, many of them show signs of the same preoccupations which appear in Kubrick's films. Many of them are also extremely funny in an absurd way, also rather like his films.
Unfortunately, these images are not of very high quality. I rely on my University Library for copies of Look, and unfortunately they have junked the original copies in favor of microfilm, thus precluding a clear transfer from original to screen. If you have copies of Look from the period 1945-early '50s and would be willing to donate or sell any of them, please drop me a note. As I'm currently a poor suffering undergraduate, I'm afraid I can't offer very much in the way of money, but I will consider any offers.
This page is under construction. I have not yet tracked down all of Kubrick's Look work (I'm currently in early 1947), but I will add pieces of interest as I discover them.
This was Kubrick's first piece for Look. It appeared in the June 26, 1945 issue. Below it is Kubrick's name as it appeared in the acknowledgments for the same issue.
This is a transcript of the text that appears at the top of the following image:
To test a girl's reaction to the advances of an amorous stranger, a free-lance photographer and friend recently visited a Bronx movie. They selected a total stranger, and the photographer's friend sat down beside her. She was completely unaware that a photographer was recording the scene a few seats away on infra-red film. See below for what he recorded.
This piece appeared on April 16, 1946, and already Kubrick is in the movie theater. Kubrick's interest in sexual obsession obviously predates Lolita and Eyes Wide Shut! The rather twisted sense of humor that is also a Kubrickian trademark also seems to have had deep roots. Lastly, the use of state-of-the-art camera techniques in Barry Lyndon seems to have been an outgrowth of the same drive that inspired Kubrick to use infra-red in this piece.
This appeared on August 20, 1946. The photo of the monkey is credited to "Ylla-Guillumette," but the entire second page is Kubrick's. All it needs is a monolith. Humanity the "eternal savage," indeed!
Here is the text accompanying the next set of photos. Each line appears beneath the corresponding photo starting in the upper left hand corner, proceeding left to right down each page.
It hurts, and probing finger shows exactly where.
Resigned to his fate, he placidly sweats it out.
That thumping jaw keeps him oblivious of everything.
Okay, so it'll hurt! That tooth's got to come out.
He's enjoying a book, but she frowns unhappily.
He can concentrate on jaw and magazine at same time.
She can't see a thing, but that drill sounds awful.
Her composed face reflects patience and fortitude.
Picking old nail polish keeps her mind off pain.
Nothing he can do but wait, so he settles to read.
She's worried. Outgoing patient didn't look happy.
Dejected, she slumps in her chair. Hope seems gone.
On the alert! He keeps a sharp lookout at the door.
Restless, she broods - wonders whether it will hurt.
Something tells him that no good can come from this.
Well! What's the use of fretting about a tooth.
He seems to think it's all in how you look at it.
DENTIST'S OFFICE: Americans visit the dentist more often than any other people. But in the dentist's waiting room, they always look as if they want to be somewhere else.
All it needs is "We'll Meet Again" in the background... October 1, 1946.
This page has been accessed times since July 14, 1996.
Go back to the top