for his photographs, the images published in the daily
newspaper,New York Daily News. In fact, grainy
printing nearly succeeded in obtaining a typographi-
cal effect. Also, the way he went catching photo-
graphs in the crowd was the same as a paparazzo
in search of a scoop, stealing smiles or tears in a
hurry, nearly in motion. His images seem to have
a cinematic soul, most of them look like photo-
grams selected from a movie, as we can see in
Dance in Brooklyn.
The first publication of the series exited in Paris in
1956 with the Dada-like title:Life Is Good for You
in New York. William Klein Trance Witness Revels.
William Klein took care of every aspect of this book
and of the following ones: design, typography, covers,
and texts. The book was meant to be a photographic
story with chapters.
In New York he could not find a publisher for
his books, but he found a very well-paid job and, for
ten years (1955 to 1965), worked as a fashion pho-
tographer atVogue. Klein’s pictures brought new
revolutionary ideas in the fashion world as well.
In contradiction with the sharpness and clearness
of Irving Penn’s and Richard Avedon’s photo-
graphs, he shot images with his Rolleiflex to re-
frame and manipulate in the darkroom. Instead of
a telescopic lens, he introduced the wide-angle lens,
and the streets, instead of the studio, were his favor-
ite settings.
While Klein photographed fashion in New York,
Europe and Asia looked to him for his stronger and
subversive images, those shot in the streets of New
York.Rome(1958),Moscow(1959–1961), andTokyo
(1961) were his following publications.William Klein, Gun 2, near the Bowerey, New York, 1955/print 1985, gelatin silver print,
23.434.6 cm, Museum Purchase: Lila Acheson Wallace Fund.
[Photograph courtesy of George Eastman House,#William Klein. Courtesy Howard Greenberg
Gallery, New York City]
KLEIN, WILLIAM