Following his service in the United States Army, Dennis Stock began an apprenticeship with Life photographer Gjon Mili and subsequently won the first prize in the publication's Young Photographers contest. Best known for his portraits of James Dean and jazz musicians like Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington, Stock produced a diverse oeuvre—from photographs of California hippies in the 1960s to images of modern architecture in the 1990s to later work focused on abstract flowers.