Untitled, Stanley Kubrick, 1950

Untitled, Stanley Kubrick, 1950

Stanley Kubrick (b. 07/26/1928, d. 03/07/1999) was an American motion picture director, writer, producer, and photographer who was noted for the scrupulous care with which he chose his subjects, his slow method of working, his technical perfectionism, and his reclusive lifestyle.  His father purchased a Graflex camera for him when he was 13, and he was chosen as an official school photographer for a year during high school.  By the time he graduated high school in 1945 he had already sold a photographic series to Look magazine, by 1946 he was an apprentice photographer for Look, and shortly thereafter a full-time staff photographer.  He gravitated towards motion pictures after his first film was a “financial success” in 1951.

As an aspiring motion picture maker I went looking for photographers who transitioned into movies.  The hands-down most successful person I found to have done this to date would have to be Stanley Kubrick.  Everyone is familiar with his movies: A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, The Shinning, and quite a few more.  I knew Kubrick had a large part in the look of all of his movies, but I did not know he had a successful career as a photographer as well.  Of all his photos I was able to look at, Untitled is by far my favorite.  I believe it has to do with the ambiguity in the scene created by not being able to see the subject’s face coupled with the overwhelming amount of emotion present at the same time.