Photographer Profile ~ William Klein

William Klein (born in NYC, 1928) is ranked 25th on Professional Photographer’s Top 100 Most influential photographers.

William Klein grew up in New York and, as a painter, went to work in Fernand Leger's Paris studio. He became interested in photography to record movement in his paintings and began using a camera. He was soon photographing other interests, and in 1954 his work was seen by American Vogue art director (and sculptor) Alexander Liberman, who offered him a contract as a fashion photographer. Liberman saw in his work a fresh approach and one that seemed to have a certain violence that would move the magazine away from the 'polite' images of Cecil Beaton.

 Because Klein did not know how to use a studio, he took the models out onto the streets to photograph. Later he pioneered the use of wide angle and telephoto lenses for fashion work. Klein's photo-reportage style involved a rejection of the established notion of the photographer as a 'fly on the wall', an unseen recorder of events. Klein recognized this and through his methods emphasized the interaction between photographer and subject, oftentimes almost pushing his wide angle camera lens into people’s faces.

He went on to produce a book, New York, New York (1956) which featured this quick reflex 35mm street photography with a graphic design and text reflective of the New York Daily News and cheap advertising. This was followed by later books on Rome (1960), Moscow (1964) and Tokyo (1964).

 Klein also made a number of movies, starting with one of the first Pop films, Broadway by Light. In 1962 he gave up still photography (except for a few fashion pictures for Vogue) to produce films on Muhammed Ali and Little Richard, the Vietnam War, and experimental films Mr Freedom and Who are you, Polly Magoo, a satire of the fashion industry

Klein returned to still photography circa 1980, mainly photographing people in crowd situations using an extreme wide angle lens. [via art-miami.com]

Klein has had solo and group exhibitions including Prints 1955-2007, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy and Rand Manège, Moscow. Klein’s work is in the collection of The Guggenheim Museum, New York, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

With a major Tate Modern exhibition currently celebrating his work, BBC spends time with William Klein to discover the irrepressible, charismatic personality behind a remarkable creative life in this fascinating documentary. Enjoy!

“I came to photography from the outside, so the rules of photography didn’t interest me.” William Klein

Smoke & Veil - William Klein for Vogue - 1958. © William Klein

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NYC 1954

St Patrick’s Day, Fifth Avenue 1954 © William Klein

I photograph what i see in front of me, I move in close to see 

better and use a wide-angle lens to get as much as possible in the frame." William Klein

NYC 1954 © William Klein

William Klein, Selwyn, 42nd Street, New York, 1955.

“In the 1950s I couldn’t find an American publisher for my New York pictures,” he says. “Everyone I showed them to said, ‘Ech! This isn’t New York – too ugly , too seedy and too one-sided.’ They said ‘This isn’t photography, this is shit!’” – William Klein (1981)

NYC 1955 © William Klein

Regarding his street photograohy : "People would say, ‘What’s this for?” I’d say, ‘The News.’ ‘The News! Wow! No shit!’ I didn’t much care.” ~ William Klein

Moving Diamonds, mural project, Paris, 1952

Red Light and Vespa, Rome,1956

NYC 1954 © William Klein
As well as painting and photography, Klein is also remembered as a film-maker (In 1956, a 28–year old William Klein arrived in Rome to assist Federico Fellini on his film Nights of Cabiria [1957]). His most notable feature being the 1969 documentary on Muhammad Ali, “Muhammad Ali: The Greatest.”

Paris 1960

Evelyn + Isabella + Nena + Mirrors, New YorkVogue, 1962

Nina and Simone, Piazza di Spagna (Rome), 1960Vogue US, April 1960
Photographer: William Klein 

Tatiana, Mary Rose and Camels, Picnic, Morocco, 1958

Hat + 5 Roses, Paris (Vogue), 1956
Photographer: William Klein 
Model: Barbara Mullen

Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? (1966) - William Klein (full film)

Photographer Profile ~ W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith (American,1918-1978) is considered to be one of the greatest photojournalist in the history of photography. The war in the South Pacific, a country doctor in Colorado, victims of industrial pollution in a Japanese village — all of these were captured in unforgettable photographs by the legendary W. Eugene Smith. No matter where, what, or whom he was shooting, Smith drove himself relentlessly to create evocative portraits that revealed the essence of his subjects in a way that touched the emotions and conscience of viewers. The works of this brilliant and complicated man remain a plea for the causes of social justice and a testament to the art of photography.

Born in Wichita, Kansas in 1918, Smith learned about photography from his mother, Nettie. By the age of thirteen he was committed to the craft, and by twenty-one he had been published in dozens of magazines. A breakthrough for Smith came during World War II, when he received an assignment to cover the war in the Pacific. In the spirit that characterized his lifelong approach toward his work, Smith threw himself into the action. He photographed on land, in the sea, and in the air, hoping to get to the center of the experience of war, and, in his words, “sink into the heart of the picture.”

As he observed and photographed the Japanese victims of the war, Smith’s conscience was stirred. It was then he began to develop in his work the theme of social responsibility. He sought to touch the viewers’ emotions and inspire them to work for social justice. As Smith explains, “I wanted my pictures to carry some message against the greed, the stupidity and the intolerances that cause these wars.” Smith’s wartime work was cut short when he was wounded, and he returned to his wife and children in upstate New York. When he was ready to work again, he felt he “needed to make a photograph that was the opposite of war.” The photograph, “The Walk to Paradise Garden,” was of his son and daughter stepping through the woods into a clearing. It proved to be one of Smith’s most enduring and best-loved photographs.

After the war, Smith undertook a series of photo-essays for LIFE magazine. Smith would spend weeks immersing himself in the lives of his subjects. This approach, very different from the usual practices of photojournalism, reflected Smith’s desire to reveal the true essence of his subjects. For “Nurse Midwife,” the story of Maude Callen, a black woman working in an impoverished community in the rural South, Smith wanted his essay to “make a very strong point about racism, by simply showing a remarkable woman doing a remarkable job in an impossible situation.” Smith’s method of getting close to his subjects and photographing them from a more intimate perspective proved successful. There was a tremendous response from both his editors at LIFE magazine and the public at large.

Smith, however, still felt a strong need to separate from the strictures of the magazine industry and work as an independent artist. In 1956, Smith left LIFE magazine and began work on an ambitious study of life in Pittsburgh. When asked to provide photographs for a book on Pittsburgh, he envisioned the project in epic proportions, planning a broad, multi-themed approach that would show the city as a living entity. He threw himself obsessively into the work, making more than ten thousand photographs, of which only fifty were used. The Pittsburgh project drained him physically and financially, and he was never able to publish the project in a form that achieved his vision. The experience, while difficult, represented a breakthrough for him; as his biographer, Jim Hughes, points out, it “allowed him to continue viewing himself in terms of art rather than journalism.”

Smith fully embraced the artistic life in the late fifties, leaving his family and moving to a loft in New York City to devote himself to his work. For the next decade, Smith spent most of his time in his loft, taking pictures from his window of the life in the streets, and photographing the artists and musicians who shared his lifestyle. This period culminated in an acclaimed retrospective of Smith’s work, titled “Let Truth Be the Prejudice”, at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1970. Soon after, Smith began work on what would be his final project. Working with his second wife, Smith spent several years in Japan collaborating on a book about victims of industrial pollution in the fishing village of Minimata.

When W. Eugene Smith died in Tucson, Arizona in 1978, he left behind a legacy of some of the most powerful photographs in the history of journalism. His personal approach to integrating his life into the lives of his subjects revolutionized the somewhat new form of photojournalism known as the photo essay. His body of work remains one of the primary bridges between photojournalists and fine art photographers. In the end W. Eugene Smith’s greatest gift was his life long insistence that journalistic photography always search for the depth and humanity of its subjects. [via PBS]

Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.
~ W. Eugene Smith

Dylan 1965

Thelonious Monk, from the Jazz Loft Project, by W. Eugene Smith

 Iwo Jima, by W. Eugene Smith 1945

Tomoko in Her Bath, Mother and daughter with Minamata Disease, Japan 

Country Doctor - 


Whats the use of having a great depth of field if there is not an adequate depth of feeling? ~ W. Eugene Smith

Country Doctor - Housecall

Untitled (goats atop roof), W. Eugene Smith 1954 

Never have I found the limits of the photographic potential. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance. Always, I am on the threshold.
~ W. Eugene Smith

War Ophans

Up to and including the moment of exposure, the photographer is working in an undeniably subjective way. By his choice of technical approach, by the selection of the subject matter...and by his decision as to the exact cinematic instant of exposure, he is blending the variables of interpretation into an emotional whole. ~ W. Eugene Smith 

 Smith’s wartime work was cut short when he was wounded, and he returned to his wife and children in upstate New York. When he was ready to work again“I needed to make a photograph that was the opposite of war.” The photograph, “The Walk to Paradise Garden,” was of his son and daughter stepping through the woods into a clearing. It proved to be one of Smith’s most enduring and best-loved photographs.

 A Spanish villager receives the last earthly visit from his wife, daughter, granddaughter, and friends. 1951

...and each time I pressed the shutter release it was a shouted condemnation hurled with the hope that the picture might survive through the years, with the hope that they might echo through the minds of men in the future - causing them caution and remembrance and realization. 
~ W. Eugene Smith

Actor Charlie Chaplin looking into mirror putting on makeup for role as animal trainer in his 81st film Limelight, 1952.

Gabon , Africa 1954

Mass in a cathedral while badly burned American officer lies swathed in bandages as he convalesces on cot, Leyte, Philippines, by W. Eugene Smith 1944 

“I wanted my pictures to carry some message against the greed, the stupidity and the intolerances that cause these wars.” 

Iwo Jima 1945

US Marine resting behind cart on rubble strewn street during battle to take Saipan from occupying Japanese forces, Saipan, by W. Eugene Smith 1944

A wounded soldier prays

This remarkable photograph was taken on assignment for LIFE (but not published in the magazine) and is one of the best examples of the narrative, documentary images W. Eugene Smith took between 1943 and 1945 while covering World War II in the Pacific. In this photograph, taken during the Battle of Okinawa, Smith demonstrated his ability to blend his strong compassion for humanity with superb aesthetic skills. In this carefully balanced and illuminated composition, he captured the strain, frustration, and terror of the soldiers'' situation. Bombarded by mortar shells and trapped by the fire of machine guns, they were unable to move forward or retreat.

U.S. soldier helping frightened civilians out of caves where they had hidden during battle of Saipan 1944.

Portrait of Smith ~ 1957

Portrait of Smith