James Dean Revisited

Steven Behal is a Toronto-based photographer.

This book is a photographic essay that James Dean fans will love. It documents a period prior to the release of East of Eden (1954) and James Dean’s becoming a star, and prior to filming A Rebel Without A Cause seven months before his death. The photo shoot took place over a short period of time at Dean’s home in Fairmount, Indiana, and then in his New York City environment and gives us an insight into his life, his humour, and his lifestyle.

Although a lot of the photography is posed, it is done with great style — some of it is in a photo-journalistic style since Stock was a Life magazine photographer. Dynamic and revealing photos show us a side of Dean’s persona that he would have liked us to see — intensely in conversation with friends such as the late Geraldine Page, or at a dance class with Eartha Kitt, or even holding a gun on Ronald Reagan — this is the “real” James Dean.

Since this was originally done as a Life profile and then developed into this photo essay, some of the photos are historical and a little boring; however, the quality of the photos is high since they are a duotone printing process and the design is clean and straightforward. A hardcover version of this book would have been preferred to this paperback edition.