James Dean: Fifty Years Ago

Book Description

Like a restless ghost, James Dean (1921-1955) continues to haunt us. Though he died nearly 50 years ago, the enigmatic star of East of Eden, Rebel without a Cause, and Giant still symbolizes the mystery and torment of adolescence-an image that his sudden, violent death fixed forever in the public mind.

Magnum photographer Dennis Stock met Dean in Hollywood in 1954 and began to capture him on camera. Shot over a three-month period just as the young actor's star began to rise, these iconic photographs are the greatest pictures ever taken of Dean. Together with Stock's text and an introduction by Dean biographer Joe Hyams, the images provide an extraordinarily intimate view of the cult legend whose brooding good looks captivated fans by illuminating the troubled depths of his character. Published on the 50th anniversary of his death, this is the definitive photographic portrait of James Dean in both his professional and his private worlds-the real man behind the lingering legend. AUTHOR BIO: Dennis Stock has been associated with Magnum Photos since 1951, and his photographs are in the collections of many major museums. Stock is the author of 16 books, including California Trip, on the surrealistic landscape of that state. He lives in Connecticut. Joe Hyams is the noted author of 28 books, among them James Dean: Little Boy Lost, the definitive Dean biography. Immediately after Dean's death, he was the first authorized by the actor's family to write about him.

Customer Reviews:

James Dean is the coolest.......2007-03-09

i will say that this book show you how he star from the small town to the big city and then california
this is a clasic book that is going to be for generation , specially if you like James Dean

BLACK AND WHITE AND COOL.......2007-02-05

My good friend, Carole, sent me a copy of an official publication from a JAMES DEAN fan club. Inside was a lengthy story she had written recounting the 1988 trip that she and six other "die-hard Dean fans" (including Jimmy's boyhood friend, Bob Pulley) made to California, during which I escorted the group to several of the prominent Dean-related sites in Los Angeles. Happily reliving those days through Carole's recollections, I was inspired to lose myself in my copy of Dennis Stock's JAMES DEAN REVISITED. His JAMES DEAN: FIFTY YEARS AGO is essentially a special, retitled hardcover reissue with the photographs beautifully enlarged, and a few splendid ones previously unpublished now included.

My copy - a gift from my employer in 1993 - is inscribed, "To a fellow alien who straddles two worlds...the art is in the living." My magazine-publishing boss bought me the book, but being a major fan, naturally, this essential book for Dean fans was already in my bookcase. I subsequently gave away my older copy and kept his gift.

As a wannabe actor fresh out of high school in 1977 (Santa Monica High, coincidentally also known as Dawson High in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE), I discovered Dean at a Fox Venice Theater showing of what I consider Dean's greatest film, EAST OF EDEN. This was before movies were available for purchase and home viewing. I was mesmerized then knocked out of my boots; everything struck a chord of harmony within me: the sense of youthful alienation; the brooding intensity; the moodiness; the frustration; the quest for meaning. I was hooked, and James Dean became my idol.

In September of 1980, I took my first extensive solo trip, flying into Indianapolis and then driving to Dean's hometown, Fairmount, for the festival honoring the 25th anniversary of his death. Through happenstance (?), I met Carole and her friend Russ (both would remain my very good friends). I'd heard that Martin Sheen was to attend the festival, and when Russ asked if I wanted to accompany them to the Indianapolis airport to pick up "Martin", I said, "Sure" - assuming that the "first name only" implied that this Martin was famous and a last name was unnecessary. It turned out to be Martin, hard-core fan flying in from England. (I'm still in touch with this non-Sheen "Martin", too.) Well, in the days that followed, my disappointment from the "Martin Mix-up" turned to elation when I discovered how well-connected my new friends were, and I found myself meeting Adeline Nall, Jimmy's high school drama teacher, and then getting a private tour of his boyhood farmhouse conducted by the aunt who raised him, Ortense Dean Winslow. I saw his motorcycle and leather motorcycle jacket, his bongo drum sitting quietly in the corner, and his childhood artwork hanging on his old bedroom walls. Very heady stuff for a young fan! (I've experienced so many strange "coincidences" in my 47 years that I'm not at all convinced this life is "real.")

Well, as the years wore on, I surprisingly lost interest in acting, and a series of spiritual episodes completely changed me and my world-view. I no longer idolize human beings, but I still recognize that James Dean was (and remains) the most imaginative, most innately gifted American actor. The direction hinted at in GIANT gives an indication of where he was pointed as an artist, and ultimately he would have emerged as a "giant" of a film director. He may have started life as a hayseed, ending it with a Turnupseed and with Life's promising highway left unexplored before him, but JAMES DEAN LIVES, both in his three films, and in these beautiful black and white photographs by the fine lensman, Dennis Stock.

Do you wish to see why the name James Dean turns up in the songs of Rock stars? (David Essex, Lou Reed, John Mellencamp, Ian Hunter, and The Eagles, to name but five.) Want to see why all the boys wanted to BE him, and all the girls wanted to BE WITH him? (As a female friend recently wrote regarding his performance in East Of Eden: "I think Dean also aroused a lot of maternal feelings with that performance. You're attracted to him, but you also want to mother him. What's a girl to do?") Well, it's all in these pages:

The Offbeat Humor: Encircled by calves and pigs, Jim sits with his bongo drum on a patch of ground on the family's farm and bangs out a "rhythm to moo and oink to."

The Bizarre Morbidity: Jimmy posing in a coffin at a Fairmount funeral home just 7 months before his corpse would be taken there.

More Bizarre Morbidity: Jim examining the chicken head held by a small, joyful girl loitering on a New York sidewalk, while the girl's older sister holds onto the leash of their disinterested dog.

The Eerily Mysterious: He sits dressed in coat and tie, reading a book in the farm's hayloft while light filtering in reveals him to be surrounded by spider web-sealed old trunks. (A dynamite piece of photography! Absolutely first-rate.)

The Classic Cool: James Dean marches through the city streets, cigarette dangling, and shoulders hunched in his overcoat against a Times Square rain.

The Ultimate Rebellion: An edgy Dean holding a gun point-blank on future president Ronald Reagan on the Hollywood set of the television play, THE DARK, DARK HOUSE.

These and so many more stellar shots - some posed and some candid - await the James Dean fan on thse pages. The decades have whittled down my once massive Dean collection to just a few portrait reproduction post cards sent to me by the late artist, Kenneth Kendall, who sculpted the actor's bust on display at The Griffith Park Observatory in L.A., and to this book of 1955 photographs by Dennis Stock. This should tell you plenty about the quality of these photos. Come and "see" the original Voice of teen angst, the red-jacketed rebel in glorious black and white.

James Dean : Fifty Years Ago.......2006-03-20

Mr. James Dean who is featured in these pictures speaks for himself and what was lost when he was taken to his final resting place in Fairmount and what might have been.

James Dean lives on.......2006-02-01

Was about time this book came out. These are some of the most beautiful JD photos. It's all I've got to say

The Finest Photo Collection on James Dean.......2005-12-07

I owned Dennis Stock's 1980s collection of photos of Dean from his Life magazine days. This books is more than a re-release; Stock has a lot more written about his brief (friendly) relationship with Dean and the affect of Dean's death. Stock included previously unreleased pictures showing more of the young star's spirit and attitude. That is what this coffee table book is about: pictures. Stock's book, combined with George Perry's biography, make for the best written and pictoral chronicle on James Dean.

Average customer rating:

Great
Great photographs but...

James Dean: Photographs
Axel Arens
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393308979

Customer Reviews:

Great.......2002-11-17

This showed many beautiful pictures of James Dean. I was a bit dissapointed because some pictures were cut off by the binding. But really, the pictures are fantastic. Worth buying.

Great photographs but..........2001-02-01

This book contains a great selection of black & white photographs of James Dean; candid, studio & film stills. Unfortunately the size of the book does pose a problem with some photographs being split in half and 'eaten' by the spine. This does ruin the effect of some beautiful prints.

Dennis Stock-Photographs. James Dean, Hollywood, Jazz, Provence

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Dennis Stock-Photographs. James Dean, Hollywood, Jazz, Provence
Stock
Manufacturer: Bonham's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NBH8VK

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Frank Worth Photographs

Manufacturer: AJM International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0954370317

Product Description

More unreleased hollywood photographs by Frank Worth, Portraits include Marilyn Monroe,James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and many more.

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James Boren : A Study in Discipline
James] Krakel, Dean [Boren
Manufacturer: Northland Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KVXXV2

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James Dean

Manufacturer: Schirmer/Mosel Verlag GmbH
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3888143438

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Visionaire : Number 19 : Beauty
James; Gan, Stephen; Dean, Cecilia Kaliardos
Manufacturer: Visionaire Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KW4W4S

James Dean revisited: Text and photographs

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James Dean revisited: Text and photographs
Dennis Stock
Manufacturer: Penguin Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0006CYEEK

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The Memory of Last 85 Days: James Dean
Sanford Roth
Manufacturer: Shinnippon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GZWYZI

Book Description

Coming at a time when scarce attention is being paid to new sources for a political impulse in the West, Performance as Political Act seeks to re-embody the political subject, arguing that when the mind has been dominated by mass communications as in Western capitalism, the body emerges as a site of opposition. Martin's study goes against the conventional wisdom of the three areas it seeks to synthesize: politics, the performing arts, and the body. Whereas most left political studies presuppose consciousness as necessary for political activity, the author contends that consciousness is inadequate without political feeling and senses which are the province of the body. The performing arts, generally viewed from the audience's perspective, are here seen from the standpoint of the performers because the power of social relations, Martin asserts, lies ultimately in performance. Finally, the body, viewed in the relevant literature as either a natural, individual essence or as subjugated to mind is established here as a social, historical agent of political activity. Two distinct, yet related, studies form the basis for Martin's contention that an alternative politics must be based on the body engaged in performance: first, an inside view of the making of a modern dance displays the sources of power for a social body; and second, a comparison of political theatre in the Soviet twenties and American sixties identifies the way in which the body's potential for politics changes. A sustained theoretical discussion that critiques semiotic and phenomenological approaches to the body and outlines a body politics links the two studies. Performing artists concerned with the political aspects of their work; sociologists engaged in the study of problems of culture and everyday life; and literary theorists involved with the application of the tools of literary criticism to political problems will find that the perspectives expressed in this groundbreaking examination of the contemporary theory and history of the body form a compelling argument for the extent to which the body can become a source of political activity.

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Pre-Classic Dance Forms
Louis Horst
Manufacturer: Dance Horizons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J55TWU

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Pre-Classic Dance Forms
Louis Horst
Manufacturer: The Dance Observer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000D5N4C

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Pre-Classic Dance Forms
Louis Horst
Manufacturer: Princeton Book Company Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Dance | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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Modern Dance Forms: In Relation to the Other Modern Arts

Moving from Within: A New Method for Dance Making

The Art of Making Dances

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The Intimate Act Of Choreography

ASIN: 0916622517

Download Description

Pre-Classic Dance Forms supplies its readers with complete historical descriptions of 16th and 17th century dances. For the student of music and dance, Horst offers a brief, readable introduction to this important era of dancing and its customs and styles and shows how the early dances influenced the growth of modern dance in this century.

Through examining the past and applying it to his times, Horst gives modern dancers new ways to study movement. As Janet Soares remarks in the Foreword to Horst's text, "By returning to a time when court composers wrote specifically for dance, Horst felt that a renewed independence could emerge with dance taking a predominant position." A well-respected text when originally published in 1937, Pre-Classic Dance Forms remains an important resource for students, choreographers, stages directors, dance historians and musicologists.

The book is illustrated with period artwork and photographs of dancers from the 16th, 17th and early 20th century, among them Angna Enters, Martha Graham, Arthur Mahoney and Berta Ochsner. A chapter is devoted to each of the following dances: Pavan, Galliard, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, Gavotte, Bourrée, Rigaudon, Passepied, Chaconne and Passacaglia. Musical scores and dance notations supplement many of the dances. Includes 24 illustrations.

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Pre-Classic Dance Forms
Louis Horst
Manufacturer: Princeton Book Company Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HMTG2E

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Pre-Classic Dance Forms

Manufacturer: Dance Observer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HVTLAM

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Pre-Classic Dance Forms
Louis Horst
Manufacturer: Dance Horizons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O02TAU

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Pre-Classic Dance Forms
Louis Horst
Manufacturer: Dance Horizions Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NXEGRC

Book Description

Unlock Photoshop Elements' Awesome Power with Sophisticated Techniques and Original Power Tools
Until now, Adobe's Photoshop Elements hasn't been considered powerful or full-featured enough for serious image correction. This is the book that changes that forever, revealing advanced features locked inside Photoshop Elements, ready to be turned loose.

All you need are the techniques found in this book and the author's custom Hidden Power Tools included on the CD--powerful enhancements that unlock key Photoshop features, like curves, channel separations in RGB and CMYK, and masking. Soon you'll do more with Photoshop Elements than you ever thought possible, including:

* Radically upgrade the quality of your color results using channels, custom separations, and image luminosity
* Alter reality by creating new photo-realistic objects and adding them to existing images
* Create dynamic images for the Web using animation and rollovers
* Correct and enhance image tone and color with Curves, Color Balance, and custom layer-blending tools
* Make complicated masks and advanced selections to easily target your corrections
* Create original, scalable line art for logos by harnessing the power of customized vectors

See the author's supporting web site at www.hiddenelements.com.

Customer Reviews:

The best book I've bought all year.......2006-11-11

The tools were why I bought the book -- having access to Curves and Color Balance alone would have been worth it, but there are a lot more -- masking tools, color separations, -- I am just starting to appreciate how powerful these tools are -- for example, before buying this book I didn't even understand why you even wanted to separate color and luminosity, but now I use that tool on every single image I process.

The book: the book is different from any other Photoshop book I've read. The most obvious difference is that it comes with neat Power Tools. A more subtle difference is that in addition to showing you how to manipulate images using Photoshop Elements (which most Photoshop books do, or should), it also aims to deepen your understanding of your images and controlling those images using manipulation-by-Elements. For example, he walks you through a somewhat complicated procedure of making masks to isolate mid-tone colors in your image-- there's a Power Tool to do it, but if you go through the entire procedure you will learn a lot more about how your image is put together. Not to mention that it was a revelation to me that you could have that much CONTROL!

Because he aims to teach you about images and how to get the best image possible, as well as a good order in which to correct images, the book is sequential. Most Photoshop books I've seen can basically be read in any order, but this builds on things he's taught in previous chapters: for example, learning about tone in the earlier chapters is essential for understanding color manipulation in the later chapters. As part of this flow, there's information not only on digital manipulation but also on printing, which is an essential part of the process, which made me very happy. Just his (elementary?) explanation of the dpi/ppi/lpi needed for various outputs and how well you can print various pixel-size images has been really useful for me to have at my fingerprints, not even to mention the calibration tool noted by another review.

On the negative side: as someone who predominately uses Elements for retouching digital photographs, I didn't find the sections on e.g. animation all that useful. I would have much preferred to see more about calculations, which I thought could definitely have been given more space, being such a complex subject. There are a fair number of typos, though it's usually pretty easy to figure out what the right thing ought to be, and I understand his website has errata. Minor issue: I had a hard time installing the tools, and had to go to the website delineated in the book to troubleshoot. (Turned out it was for some reason having a hard time with my external hard drive; once I unplugged it, it was fine.)

I would strongly recommend NOT expecting this to be your only photoshop elements book (unless you are already an image manipulation guru, maybe). I personally have Photoshop Elements 2 for Dummies from a local book sale as well, and had read the whole thing and understood how everything worked in it before tackling this one-- I would've been lost if I'd tried to do it in the other order. I still refer to Dummies above this book when I want to know quickly how to do something simple or want to know what some random special effect does, neither of which are the purposes of this book.

This book gives back to you what you put into it; the more you try to understand what is really going on, the more you will get out of it. To me, this is the hallmark of a great book; I've reread it twice already and am still learning more. To others, it may not be what you are looking for, particularly if you want quick recipes or quick fixes. If you've read my examples above and you're thinking, "Gosh, that sounds like it might be sort of dense... but worth it to really understand images and controlling images better," this book may be perfect for you, as it was for me. If you're thinking, "Nuts, I just want a couple of auto-buttons to press to get cool effects or quickly fix everything," this book is not for you.

But if you have Elements 2 and are even THINKING of upgrading to full Photoshop (which I was), get this book first!

Maybe Later.......2005-08-05

After five nights of really trying so hard to get through this book...and I did try, I finally decided I was so lost it was time to quit and try some other book. I know I am not at the level I want to be in Elements, but just going through steps that make no sense with this book finally got to where it was not worth the effort. I'm putting this book on the shelf and finding one that doesn't assume I know the steps he leaves out. I'm very dissappointed because I really need to know this stuff :(((

Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2.......2005-05-24

First must say all the raves you see are from professionals that have used other systems and maybe good friends of the author, as some of the reviews said, mistakes, no clear definition of way to go, confusing, believe the author once sent me an answer to a question stating he has condensed a book of 950 pages into this, Well unless your an photographic, or layout person, this book too confusing for someone starting out, I would not recommend this book to first timers

Full of info but definitely a "college level" course.......2005-03-28

When I first read this book I was overwhelmed by the information and have had to struggle through all of the technical work. There is so much to learn, and much of it is technical. That said, Mr. Lynch goes out of his way to help his readers, and includes extra tools on his website as well as a forum. The extra tools alone pay for the book - he includes Curves and demonstrates how valuable this is. He also has tools to give you great photo frames, etc, with a few quick moves. If you are willing to put in hours learning to achieve his results you will be very happy with this book. If you simply wish a basic beginning book on Elements this is NOT the book for you. I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to be proficient with Elements 2. I am going to buy the Elements 3 book.

Praise.......2004-09-27

I have nothing but praise for this densely-packed book. Seek and ye shall find! The information level is as comprehensive as one could wish: Beware though, very few empty words, read carefully! Providing the hidden elements for Photoshop Elements users is an invaluable attribute.Use of these tools brings us into the realm of the full-fledged Photoshop. Thanks, Richard Lynch!

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