Stanley Kubrick, in his late teens was a hell of a magazine photographer.

Stanley Kubrick worked as a staff photographer for LOOK magazine from 1945 to 1950. According to the Museum of the City of New York, “He was not yet Kubrick, the famous film director; he was just Stanley, the kid from the Bronx with an uncanny photographic sensibility.

Young Stanley Kubrick, magazine photographer. Self-portrait.

“Only 17 years old when he joined the magazine’s ranks, he was by far its youngest photographer. Kubrick often turned his camera on his native city, drawing inspiration from the variety of personalities that populated its spaces. Photographs of nightclubs, street scenes, and sporting events were amongst his first published images, and in these assignments, Kubrick captured the pathos of ordinary life in a way that belied his young age.”

The Museum’s collection contains 129 of Kubrick’s assignments for the magazine encompassing more than 15,000 individual images, the vast majority of the photos were never published.

Kubrick’s photo essay featuring boxer, Rocky Graziano, is stunning.

Rocky Graziano, photo by Stanley Kubrick circa 1950.

The museum’s entire collection is like candy for photographers. You can view the digital collection on the Museum of the City of New York’s website.

Enjoy.