Back before he was wowing audiences with his films, such as “The Shining” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” director Stanley Kubrick had a career behind another type of camera. Starting as a teenager, Kubrick became a young staff photographer for Look magazine in the 1940s. Even at such a young age, the then-photographer was able to capture incredible images, way before he’d even think about a career in filmmaking. And now, if you live in the New York City area, you can take a look at some of these early photos in a special exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.
The exhibit, titled “Through a Different Lens: Stanley Kubrick Photographs,” begins its run May 3 and features over 120 photos from his time with Look, where Kubrick was a photographer from 1945 to 1950. The exhibit is said to run chronologically, showing his growth in the field, and it will showcase published, as well as unpublished, Kubrick originals.
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“You cannot look at photographs without knowing he’s going to be a filmmaker. There were a lot of great photographers at Look and he probably wasn’t the greatest one there, but there was something about Stanley that you just knew he had what it took to get to the next level,” said Donald Albrecht, curator of architecture and design at the museum.
“The job of a photojournalist is studying the way people behave, in erotic or more mundane ways,” said Sean Corcoran, curator of prints and photographs at the museum. “You can see Kubrick applying his penetrating observations to that kind of behavior, and the way that he photographs the city is almost like film noir. He always shows a flair for dramatic lighting.”
Head over to Variety, if you’re interested in seeing a small selection of Kubrick’s work that will be on display. And if you can make it to the Museum of the City of New York, ‘Through a Different Lens’ runs from May 3 to next October.