Thanks, Stephen. I detect evidence that William Klein was in the US earlier this year.
Such visits are rare--I've never had an opportunity to witness him--though I have been
lucky enough to see quite a number of his films. He was called a "street photographer",
but at the same time an "expressionist". I believe he might have viewed the first
generation of paparazzi in Rome (depicted by Fellini in La Dolce Vita), though whether
Klein was ever attacked by his subjects . . .
That 2007 video profile on youtube provides the best sense of Klein's personality I've
been able to access.
Here's a 2003 snapshot I took of William Klein perhaps risking arrest by plunging into a
gathering of people on the street in order to register an image:
SUR WILLIAM KLEIN
seeing people you don't see anywhere else.
Under a policeman in a parade
roloflex
woman
in the crowd
like a soviet realist . . .
Like a kid riding on a bike
I am a fashion photographer,
anti-chic and absurdist
my . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Barry
On Tue, 1 Sep 2009 10:58:20 -0700, Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I like this, Barry. Is Klein still alive? A Brooklyn boy, I think, who lived most of his
professional life in Paris. Definitely a blunt, in your face photographer. As I recollect, in
his early Brooklyn work, he took the borders/margins off his photographs. In portraits,
the faces often look like they are about to come off the wall and challenge you with
whatever. A street photographer, I wonder if some of those NY folks attacked him in
return! He is different from, but similar to Diane Arbus' fearless approach to 'the human
subject'.
>
>Stephen
> http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
>
>
>SNAPPED WITHIN APERTURE
>
>
>Sophia Loren said,
>William Klein has eyes like a knife.
>He is ruthless and outrageous but
>never mean--he is tender and
>funny and violent.
>And, I'm sure, really in love
>with our crazy Rome.
>
>Federico Fellini noted,
>Klein's book ROME could be a film
>and someday I hope he will do it.
>Anyhow, this is the best Rome there is
>and Klein is the best photographer there is.
>He knows Rome like a book and
>this is it.
>
>
>Barry Alpert / Silver Spring, MD US / 9-1-09 (1:19 PM)
>
>Found promising material when I wasn't looking for it. Treated but still largely found.
>Here are links to some of William Klein's photos snapped in Rome as well as a recent
>video profile of him.
>
><http://images.google.com/images?
>q=william+klein+rome&btnG=Search+images&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS266&um=1&s
a
>=2&start=0>
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4wieOa_Kog
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