Great Black and White Photographers Part 2

September 13, 2017

This was the original photo I picked that was taken by William Klein. I originally chose this picture because I liked how it showed that children were still able to have a normal childhood, even though the Great Depression had only just ended a few years prior. Because of this picture, I decided to learn more about William Klein.
William Klein was born in New York City on April 19, 1928, and is now 89 years old. He had a very fast paced childhood, graduating from high school at just fourteen. He then enrolled at the City College of New York at the same time he joined the army in 1945. He had to go to Paris because he was stationed there in the army, but once he was withdrawn from the army he stayed in Paris so he could study art. He had the opportunity of studying with a fellow artist, Fernand Leger along with many other artists.
During the early 1950's he started trying to make abstract photographs from his paintings. These photographs became noticed by Alexander Liberman, one of the people who worked at Vogue, and William was offered a job as a fashion photographer. This job made William return to New York in 1954. In addition to working for Vogue, William worked on a book that became his classic photographic book which he later titled, "Life is Good and Good for You in New York: Trance Witness Revels", published in 1956. His photography was different from most pictures during the 50's: blurry, grainy, and high- contrast. He had these qualities because he used a 35-millimeter camera, slow film, and a wide-angle lens. He was then awarded with the Prix Nadar in 1957 for his book, followed by three other amazing portraits of cities: Rome (1958), Moscow (1962), and finally Tokyo (1964).
After he ended his contract with Vogue, he stopped taking still pictures, and moved back to Paris to start filmmaking and made films including; Cassius the Great, Muhammad Ali the Greatest, and the Little Richard Story. William then resumed part-time still photography in 1978.