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January 4, 2010
I know William Klein best for what many claim is his groundbreaking 1956. book New York, 1954-1955 of the constant motion of street life. This book is full of a urgent, messy and off-kilter images that brought an edgy immediacy to the 1950s complacent photographic tradition.
William Klein, Broadway and 103rd Street, New York,1954-55
Klein's photoreportage style involved a rejection of the traditional idea of the photographer as a 'fly on the wall', an unseen recorder of events. Klein recognized and through his methods emphasized the interaction between photographer and subject, often almost pushing his camera with wide angle lens into peoples faces.
William Klein, "Club Allegro Fortissimo, Paris, 1990.
Klein's giant versions of contact sheets showing a series of photographs, painted over in coloured enamel to highlight particular images, were a popular feature of a recent exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.Klein developed the style over 15 years ago and a Paris court has held that Klein's "painted contacts" were a hallmark of his work and that copying the recognized style of another artist and was an infringement of copyright.
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