William Klein
“The photographs he took in the streets of New York did not convince prospective American publishers. They seemed too raw and violent; Klein’s aesthetic was in direct contradiction with the rules of what was then considered good photography. The canons that had been imposed by Henri Cartier-Bresson were those of a clean and balanced image, built on the average tones. The persons were taken at a distance or secretly. Klein meant to contradict explicitly every rule dictated by Cartier-Bresson: to the average tones he opposed a strong black-and-white contrast, to a clean and defined printing contrapposed a grainy one obtained through the blowup processes.
- p.877-878 of the Encyclopedia of 20th Century Photography, ed. Lynne Warren
There is a whole history of street photography in between Winogrand and the shit, shit work being done now that I don’t know about.
An example is the delightful Klein. He is blurrier, more active, less interested in capturing the decisive moment. Some critics define him as cinematic, and he is, in the very basic sense of that word. His photos seem to want to break free of their hundredths of a second and move, have frames, have sound.
He is also far more in connection with the subject than Winogrand, or me. He stops and lets them ham it up. Often it pays off as in the photo of the Japanese dancers above. In another interview I remember him saying the he and the dancers in Tokyo were ‘provoking each other’. They were playing together, how wonderful.
Posted 2 years ago
