DENNIS STOCK THE PHOTOGRAPHER ON JAMES DEAN

JAMES DEAN is celebrated each year at a special JAMES DEAN FESTIVAL in his hometown, and that festival is happening starting tomorrow through Sunday, September the 26th, 2010. We're linking to the OFFICIAL JAMES DEAN site which will take you to another link about the festival.

JAMES DEAN and I both grew up in the country, and after his death, after I was being promoted by UNITED ARTISTS as THE NEXT JAMES DEAN, Dean's family welcomed me to visit the farm, and photographs of me were taken there that I still own.

DENNIS STOCK (Who Took That Photo of James Dean Walking Down the Street in New York)

We're linking to the Los Angeles Times news article, from yesterday, January 14, 2009, which starts on today's front page and goes into the Obituaries about DENNIS STOCK, who took that great photo of James Dean in 1954, walking in Times Square in New York City..."

"Stock didn't know Dean was an actor until he'd finished talking to him." It wasn't apparent in his appearance," he told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2005. "He was not a neat dresser per se. He looked tired, but he was pleasant and interesting."Stock went with Dean to a sneak preview of "East of Eden" in Santa Monica, but the actor stayed outside with his motorcycle while Stock watched the movie. Overwhelmed by Dean's performance, Stock proposed doing a "visual biography" on Dean. "I knew this guy would take off," he recalled. The famous Times Square photo of Dean was just part of Stock's photo essay that appeared in Life magazine in 1955..." Dennis McLellan reporting, January 14, 2010

I met and talked to Dennis briefly while out with my friend who had been James Dean's friend, Christine White

WES and I are working on our blog right now but...

though we have postings coming up on DENNIS STOCK, the photographer most known for the iconic 1954 pre-fame photo of James Dean in New York, and the article on when ELVIS PRESLEY met President Richard Nixon, both in the LA TIMES, we are, perhaps like billions of other people in the world, in shock about the earthquake destruction in HAITI.

Since the news hit, the appraisals of the situation there seem to be getting worse and worse.

3rd world nations do not seem to be up to the earthquake safety features of buildings built here in California. Though our economy is almost Great Depression Era here, we are filled with pride that our great United States of America is sending aid. According to the latest LA Time articles, it's estimated that there are 40,000 to 55,000 dead and 3 million effected - about 1/3rd the population of Haiti. A rare phone works. Water needs to be made pure to drink. Dead bodies line the roads, another health endangerment. Natural disasters like these really make you think about your own life, how precious it is, and how it ought to be lived.

Christine Trzyna