Photography and Cinema

(sharon) #1
imagestogether.ShotinNewYorkduringtherehearsalsofvisitingballet

companiesinthe 1930 s,thescrappybutevocativephotosweresetout

full-bleedonthepageandbuttedtogether,thelandscapeformatsugges-

tiveofacinemaframe.^30 Theeffectissuppleandfluid,movingtheviewer

ceaselesslyfromonespreadtothenext.

WilliamKlein’sinfluentialLife Is Good and Good for You in New York:

Trance Witness Revels( 1956 )hadthesubjectmatterofFrank’sThe Americans

withadesignclosetoBrodovitch’sBallet.^31 Klein’strademarkbustling

andenergeticstreetshotsareprintedinvisceralhighcontrast,wellsuited

totheconsumer-driven,brashandmediatizedNewYork.Hemadeuseof

thenewlyavailablePhotostatcopiertodesignhis‘anti-book’,ashecalled

it.Almosteveryspreadoffersanewlayoutidea,fromteemingsequences

ofsidewalkscenestosharpjuxtapositionsbetweencitizensandthe

advertisingthatsurroundsthem.Despitethetightandhighlyorganized

framing,Kleindeclared:‘onlythesequencingcounts...likeina

movie’.^32 Publishedthesameyear,EdvanderElsken’sLove on the Left

Bankwasevenmoreexplicitlycinematic.VanderElskenwasapioneer

ofdiaristicfirst-persondocumentaryphotographyandlaterfilm.Having

shotthedailylivesofhisbohemianfriendsinParis,heorganizedthe

photosintoafictionalnarrative,heldtogetherbycaptions.Thestructure

76 isasimplelovestory(withasurprisinglyfilmic‘flashback’attheend)

65 An illustrated page from ‘A Hard Look
at the New Hollywood’,Esquiremagazine
(March1959).PhotographsbyRobertFrank.

64 Spread from Alexey Brodovitch’s
Ballet, 1945(J. J. Augustin, New York).
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