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Stanley Kubrick's Photographs for LOOK Magazine, 1946-1950 (Library of Congress)

A guide to images made by Stanley Kubrick while working for LOOK Magazine (1946-1950). The Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division holds 102 of Kubrick’s assignments for LOOK (negatives and contact sheets). Related resources are also featured.

Introduction

Janet Mevi, photographer. Jazz story. 1950. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. Stanley Kubrick appears playing the drums during this photo assignment he worked on jointly with Janet Mevi for LOOK.

While LOOK Magazine includes work by many noteworthy photographers, Stanley Kubrick’s photos have been the subject of repeated inquiries because of his later career as a filmmaker. This guide is intended to convey the scope of Kubrick's work for the magazine, as well as information needed to locate the photographs.

Stanley Kubrick worked for LOOK Magazine from 1946 until 1950. After selling a number of photographs to the magazine as a freelancer, he was hired as an apprentice photographer in April of 1946. He became a staff photographer in 1947. Kubrick’s work for LOOK consists of thousands of frames of film. Most of these images are not digitized.

The LOOK Magazine Photograph Collection came to the Prints and Photographs Division (P&P) of the Library of Congress in 1971 when the magazine ceased publication. During the earlier years of the magazine's publication, magazine staff gave some photographic assignments (Jobs), mostly those focusing on New York City subjects, to the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY). Because of this, Kubrick’s work for LOOK Magazine is divided between the two institutions.

Stanley Kubrick, photographer. Fran Allison with Kukla and Ollie, puppets by Burr Tillstrom, at puppet theater. 1949. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.