William Klein

William Klein arrived in Paris as a soldier

William Klein was born in New York on 19 April 1926 into a poor Jewish family. He attended high school and after graduating early at the age of 14, began sociology studies at City College of New York. He served in the American armed forces during the Second World War and in this way went to Germany and then France where he eventually stayed after his release, with his future wife Jeanne Florin (died 2005), “the most beautiful girl in Paris”, whom he met during his first stay in Paris as a GI in 1947, playing a not inconsiderable role in this decision. William Klein visited the Sorbonne and later studied in the studios of Fernand Léger (1881-1955) and André Lhote (1885-1962), who had also taught Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004). During this time, Klein’s main interest was in abstract painting and sculpture.

The photographic autodidact becomes a star

William Klein had two successful solo exhibitions in Milan in 1952 where he also began a fruitful collaboration with the Italian architect Angelo Mangiarotti (1921-2012). He experimented with kinetic art and met the then artistic director of the fashion magazine Vogue, Alexander Liberman (1912-1999) at an exhibition of Klein’s work. Klein Subsequently turned to photography and became well-known as a fashion photographer for Vogue, assisted by the minor scandal caused when he altered the posture of the models. His fame was also helped by photo essays on various cities which he published under Éditions du Seuil with the help of Chris Marker (1921-2012). In contrast to painting, William Klein’s photography was self-taught, and it was this personal and unconventional approach that led to a much-admired, unmistakeable aesthetic, that made him one of the ‘fathers of street photography’ alongside the Swiss photographer Robert Frank (1924-2019). 

Political engagement with short films

As well as photography, William Klein was also active as a filmmaker and produced numerous short films. In this, he was driven primarily by his desire to shape social politics, advocating for the rights of African Americans and supporting their cause through cinematic portraits of celebrities such as Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), Little Richard (1932-2020) and Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998). He supported Louis Malle as artistic advisor on the comedy Zazie dans le metro (1960), a filming of the eponymous novel by the French writer Raymond Queneau (1903-1976), whilst the Italian film director Federico Fellini (1920-1993) also requested Klein as an assistant. William Klein received prizes and awards for his art including the Prix Nadar for his photo book on New York, whilst a major retrospective of his extensive work was held in Paris in 2019.

William Klein died in Paris on 10 September 2022.