william klein biography

william klein biography. photographer and film-maker : in the 1950s and '60s, his use of unconventional techniques jolted the photography world ........

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william klein biography

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new york
william klein was born in new york in 1928 into
a family of poor jewish immigrants. his father's
clothing business had folded in the 1928 crash,
although his extended family - mainly lawyers -
was wealthy.
growing up in the '30s klein also experienced
anti-semitism first-hand, both from students at school
and on the street, he was a jewish boy in an irish
neighborhood. he always felt alienated from mass culture.
his friends remember him as a bright, sarcastic
kid who liked art and the humanities.
he adored the moma, museum of modern art,
which was like a second home to him from age 12 on.
and at the age of 14, three years ahead of his
classmates, he enrolled at city college of new york
to study sociology. at 18, he spent two years
in the US army, stationed in germany and france
as a radio operator, before completing his course.
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paris
in 1948 he enrolled at the 'sorbonne' in paris.
in 1949, klein studied briefly with lhote and
fernand leger.
leger encouraged his students to revolt and to reject
conformity and bourgeois values, telling them that
ateliers and galleries were obsolete and that they
should go out and work on the streets.
after marrying jeanne florin, he decided to remain in
france and still lives and works in paris.
during the early 50s klein style was spare,
abstract and architectural.
the paintings from this period were deeply influenced
by graphics, bauhaus, mondrian and max bill, which led
klein to try painting murals.
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milan
in 1952 klein had two shows in milan at the 'piccolo
teatro' and at the 'galleria il milione' and began to
collaborate with the architect angelo mangiarotti,
who commissioned murals on moveable panels
that could be used as room dividers. in the same year,
he started to collaboratewith the italian architecture
magazine 'domus'.
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photography
as an artist using photography, he set out to re-invent
the photographic document.
his photos, often blurred or out of focus, his high-contrast
prints (his negatives were often severely over-exposed),
his use of high-grain film and wide angles shocked
the established order of the photography world and he
earned a reputation as an anti-photographer's photographer.

inspired by moholy-nagy and kepes, he began to
experiment with juxtaposing abstract painting and photography.
alexander liberman, painter and director of 'vogue' america
met klein at one of klein's parisian sculpture shows and
was fascinated, both by his sculpture (kinetic light panels on
photosensitive glass)and by the photographs klein had recently
begun to take. he invited klein to come to new york to
discuss a job.
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return to new york
by 1954 he felt ready to return to new york for a visit and
when klein arrived, liberman asked him what he would
really like to do. his answer was to photograph new york
in a new way, a kind of photographic diary.
as an american who had lived in europe for six years,
he had become a hybrid - and new york to him was oddly
foreign.
liberman agreed, vogue would finance this as a possible
feature, and klein - who had never photographed fashion
before - was also, to his surprise, given a contract as
a fashion photographer for the magazine.
klein said: 'I was a make believe ethnographer:
treating new yorkers like an explorer would treat zulus -
searching for the rawest snapshot, the zero degree
of photography.'
this book 'new york' - ('life is good and good for you in
new york...) was a scandal..
'vogue' was shocked by his view of the city - crude,
aggressive and vulgar - and others saw it as
photographically incompetent and he could not find
a publisher in america.
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photobooks
he took the work back to paris and although the
photographic establishment took a similar view,
he managed to find a french publisher, editions seuil,
who believed in it and brought it out in 1956
(re-issued 1995). it was also published in Italy
the same year.
klein's book won the nadar prize.

from 1960 to 1964, he produced three other books of
photography:
'rome' (1960), 'moscow' (1964) and 'tokyo' (1964);
all are filled with raw, grainy, swirling yet stark images.
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fashion photography
from 1955 to 1965 klein worked for vogue. he preferred
to photograph his models out in the street or on location.
he was not particularly interested in clothes or fashion, and
used this opportunity to reasearch the picture making process
by introducing new techniques to fashion
photography, including the use of wide-angle and long-focus
lenses, long exposures combined with flash and multiple
exposures -making fashion an area of innovation in
photography.
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film
from 1965 to the early 80s, he abandoned photography and
primarily concentrated on film, making various documentaries:
'broadway by light' (1958), 'who are you polly maggoo?' (1966),
'mr. freedom', 'muhammad ali the greatest', 'the little
richard story' (1979), 'the messiah'(1999).
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return to photography
klein returned to still photography in the 1980s due to
a renewed interest in his early work.his photographs
of this period are characterized by his use of close-ups
and wide angle lenses.

during the 90s he continued to create mixed media works
using painting and photography. he received the hasselblad
prize and various retrospectives of his films were
organized in new york and japan. he was awarded the
agfa-bayer/hugo erfurt prize and created in & out of fashion,
a mixed media project including drawings, photographs and
film, which was published simultaneously with shows in london,
paris and new york. in 1997 he rephotographed new
york and had shows in barcellona and paris. in 1999
he was awarded the 'medal of the century' by the royal
photographic society' in london.
currently he lives and works in paris.
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recent solo exhibitions
galleria carla sozzani, milan, italy 2000
scottish national gallery, edinburgh, scotland, 1999
fnac, paris, france 1999
grand manège, moscow, 1998
jane jackson gallery, atlanta, usa, 1998
pushkin museum, moscow, 1997
saint-gervais center, geneva, switzerland, 1997
caixa national foundation, madrid, spain, 1997
deichtor hallen, hamburg, germany, 1997
pouchkine museum, moscow, russia 1997
hamiltons gallery and british film institute, london, uk 1997
fondazione nazionale della fotografia, turin, italy 1997

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more on william klein:
http://www.galleriacarlasozzani.com
http://www.eyestorm.com
http://www.artchive.com
http://photography.about.com

see
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