Some heartthrobs of the past hold up better than others. For instance: If Bing Crosby popped up on my Tinder, I’d swipe left. But then you have your Jimmy Stewarts and your Rob Lowes. These men constitute the heartthrob canon, dating back to this tall drink of water. These are men who—even in the future, when we all have identical, spooky-symmetrical robot faces—will always be attractive. In this canon, James Dean is the king; nobody is cooler than James Dean. (Almost, Idris. Almost.)
Dennis Stock: James Dean is a collection of classic photographs of Dean by Dennis Stock. Stock photographed Dean on a nostalgic trek through the places where he spent his days pre-stardom, and continued photographing Dean long after. Stock’s photo essay of Dean for Life magazine was one of the first of its kind; we learn from Hollywood columnist Joe Hyams’ introduction that before Dean, “few actors had ever been willing to expose their roots, to admit that the seeds of their talent came from quite ordinary soil.” So Dennis Stock: James Dean is a celebration of the advent of intimate photo essays, but it’s also an ode to classic cool that will spruce up your coffee table. The book is available on October 26. In the meantime, here are four reminders that you’ll never be as cool as James Dean.
Here’s James Dean carrying a faaacking goat and angling his gaze just so on Winslow Farm in Fairmount, Indiana.
James Dean at a barber shop near Times Square, making sure his sideburns are just right. (They're perfect. Nothing will ever be as perfect as these sideburns.)
James Dean looking up at Cyril Jackson with adoring googly eyes during a drum lesson.
James Dean lounging around in his apartment on Central Park, which is all of our apartment goals realized. He even has a bullfighting cape and horns, which is so very Hemingway. In Stock’s caption, he noted: “Jimmy had a need to be surrounded by books, but I’m not sure he was a real reader.”