At the age of 96, American photographer William Klein has died. His inventive portraiture technique had a significant impact on fashion and street photography in the second half of the 20th century.
According to a statement from his son Pierre on Monday, Klein passed away on Saturday in Paris.
Klein, a Hungarian Jew who was born in New York City in 1926 and raised in Manhattan, attended City College to study sociology in New York.
After serving with the U.S. military in Europe He relocated to Paris to study painting under the G.I. during World War II. Bill.
Soon after arriving in Paris, Klein fell in love with and wed Jeanne Florin, a model, and painter. Up until her passing in 2005, the couple shared a home in France.
In 1951, Klein held his first solo show of paintings in Brussels. A year later, he held another in Milan. Klein temporarily trained under French painters Andre Lhote and Fernand Leger. After meeting Alexander Liberman, the magazine’s artistic director, in 1954, he began to focus on photography and began a 10-year partnership with the publication.
The book “Life is Good & Good for You in New York” featured Klein’s unconventional use of wide angles, contrasts in composition, and unusual framing, which came to define the still-nascent genre of street photography. During the same time, he produced a groundbreaking photographic diary of his native New York.
In 1956, the book was released in Paris, London, and Rome. The Nadar Prize was awarded to it the following year. Rome, Tokyo, and Moscow picture diaries were published by him in 1959, 1964, and 2002, respectively.
Throughout his career, he produced a number of documentaries and narrative features on subjects including the fashion industry, the Vietnam War, and renowned boxer Muhammad Ali. He was also an accomplished filmmaker.
After being inspired by Klein’s unvarnished depictions of New York City’s street life, Italian director Federico Fellini hired him to work on his 1957 film “Nights of Cabiria,” which is about a prostitute in Rome. This was Klein’s first foray into the world of cinema.
