Stanley Kubrick’s Photographs of New York

Stanley Kubrick is best known for his directing credits — Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, etc. — but it was his early ability with the camera that originally propelled him into the art of capturing images. His talent was immense even at 17. In 1945, he sold a photograph of a sad news vendor reacting to the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Look magazine for $25, and a couple months later became the youngest photographer ever hired by the magazine. Kubrick’s career as a photojournalist gives us another look into the man who directed some of the greatest movies ever put onto film. A keen eye for light and shadow drape his subjects under a veil that is strictly characteristic of Kubrick and his control over the camera.

His pictures are rife with an air of wonderment. Loser vs victor. Circus freaks, and paper boys. Organized chaos. The poses and situations of the subjects he captured, speak of a New York filled with the eclecticism it has spent decades parading and perfecting. 25 photos were hand selected out of 10,000 negatives for the currently running show at The Museum of the City in New York. What is being displayed is Kubrick’s 1940s New York, a New York we now get to experience as well: a city seen through the lens of a young master. See a selection of the photographs below then head over to The Museum of the City of New York and VandM to see the rest.