What does William Klein do?

WilliamKlein (1928-) was selected as the 30 most important photographers in the history of photography by the international judges of the World Photography Expo in 1963, mainly because his album "Life in new york is very suitable for you-Carnival seen in WilliamKlein's trance" filmed in 1956 had a great response in Europe. In the picture book, he used what he called "failure in photography", which caused accidents, coarseness, blurring and deformation, and formed a brand-new visual language, showing new york's life to the world with just the right passion.

Chinese name: William Klein.

William Klein

Alias: william klein

Nationality: USA

Place of birth: new york.

Date of birth: 1928

Occupation: photographer

Main achievements: Outstanding Contribution Award of the 48th Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

Representative works: New York life is good for you-the carnival seen in william klein's trance.

Basic introduction

In the past five years, the most popular figure in the world film industry is the heartthrob WilliiamKlein. There are countless reasons to say that he is strange. Just give a few examples to understand: he was an early abstract painter and was once quite famous. His teacher is the famous Fernandl, erer, 188 1- 1955). He is a famous political filmmaker, who is a producer, director and photographer. 18 films have been made, ranging from 16 cm to 35mm, in black and white and color, with lengths ranging from 12 to 3 hours. One of them, MisterFreedom》(35mm color,120min, 1968), also led the French Ministry of the Interior to order its deportation. Only when Jean-PaulSartre, an existentialist master, signed a protest statement to the government can he retain his right of abode and lift the ban on film performances. Until now, French television has a government directive-Klein is never allowed to participate in the production of the program.

He is crazy to the extreme, specializing in anti-authority. Although he admired the photos of Henri Carty Bresson, he disdained his theory of "decisive moment". He is a ghost and a lucky man. He took photos thirty years ago, but it was completely ignored. The reason is that Bresson's style was popular all over the world, and Klein deliberately did the opposite. As long as Bresson advocates something, he will resist it. Therefore, no one looked at his photo, and no one wanted to post it, until Klein felt that "his photo-taking behavior had become a joke", put down the camera and never took a photo again. More than five years ago, somehow, the new york Museum of Modern Art held a large-scale retrospective exhibition for him on a whim. All the publications in the world followed Klein's completely forgotten photos and rushed to publish them in a large space, which suddenly took him to the sky. The author was completely unaware of such a person. Within a few months, Japanese "Daily Photography", Swiss cameras, French ZOOM, American CAMERA35, APERTURE, Italy's IGRANADIFFFRAFI and other publications came into contact with Klein's works at the same time. Only then did I know this photographer who had seen the light of day and his unique photography style. He is undoubtedly the most popular photographer in the world in the past five years, and no one knows about it.

Brief introduction to life

Klein 1928 was born in new york. His father once owned a clothing store. The year after he was born, he went bankrupt because of the economic depression. After that, Klein's father made a living by selling insurance to rich relatives. Klein lived in extreme poverty in the face of rich relatives since childhood, and his childhood was full of feelings of abandonment, which also formed his character of self-exile. /kloc-at the age of 0/4, Klein, who is extremely clever, achieved excellent results. He graduated from middle school three years ahead of schedule and entered City University of new york. Just one year before graduation, he decided to give up his degree and join the army. This is the first time that his character of self-exile has been revealed. He was very satisfied with his choice: "This is a beautiful day. For the first time in my life, I can stay away from my family without dating girls. I enjoy this life. " 1948, just after he was 20 years old, he left the United States and went into exile in Paris, leading a wandering life as an artist. Klein first studied painting in Sorbonne, Paris, and completed his degree. In the same year, he married a French woman. At that time, the biggest influence on his future career was that he followed Reggie for a period of time. He said: "From Reggie, I learned the taste of mechanical melody and the concept that anything is possible." Klein was influenced by Reggie, not his painting style. His paintings do not have the social consciousness of Lei and the mechanical beauty of the industrial age. From the beginning, he painted very hard and abstract. It was pretty good when I debuted. If you continue to develop in painting, it is likely that you will now play an important role that cannot be underestimated. It is very accidental that Klein will take up photography. 1952, his oil paintings were exhibited in Milan. At that time, Klein was fascinated by the changes of lines and shapes and made large murals with ominous geometric patterns. Margiaroffi, a famous Italian architect, happened to see his exhibition and suggested that he put this large painting into a movable partition and a walkway or room to create more possibilities. When Klein's Architectural Painting was released, he took some photos as a souvenir, so he devoted himself to photography without knowing the river. In fact, this is also caused by self-exile, because he feels that his performance in painting has reached a higher level, so he will not go on, preferring to join the new wave and go with the flow.

Introduction of works

Director works

1999 messiah

1983 "photography full contact"

1982 France

1980 little richard's story

1977 model couple

1969 "Mr. Freedom"

1969 great champion Ali

1967 away from Vietnam

1966 Polly Margo, who are you? 》

Screenplay works

1977 model couple

1969 "Mr. Freedom"

1969 great champion Ali

1966 Polly Margo, who are you? 》

Actor's work

1962 dike

1953 "restrictions"

195 1 year "PurpleHeart"

1950 "Willie returns"

1950 My Blue Paradise

photographic work

1999 messiah

1982 France

1969 great champion Ali

Winning record

individual style

Klein, who picked up the camera, was immediately appreciated by AlexhnderLiberman, the artistic director of the most famous fashion magazine, and hired him as a fashion photographer. Lin Deman recalled his feelings when he saw Klein's works: "His things have violence that I have never experienced in other people's works. These photos are harsh and uncompromising, but Klein turned them into a kind of. Klein's method of shooting fashion is unprecedented. He took the models from the studio to the street, imposed traffic control, hired them as Confucianism and actors, or transported a truck of wax figures as supporting actors, and sometimes repainted the streets. He reshaped the real world into a stage to shoot a new dress. Some people say that he is the Ferini of fashion photography, showing strangeness and your strength in the field of perception. Klein had a generous Vogue meal ticket, so he took a photo of his street. The lens he uses is either wide-angle (2 1 cm) or ultra-telephoto (500 cm), which is completely contrary to normal vision. He believes that the so-called objective angle does not exist, and photography does not need to look at the world objectively! " Why should photography bear the heavy responsibility of testifying for the real world? Bresson ordered the wide-angle lens to distort the facts. Only a standard lens of 50 cm is normal vision, and photographers of the whole era regard it as a gift. In my opinion, a wide-angle lens is more normal than a standard lens. You can even say that from a limited point of view, 50 cm is a punishment. We are looking at the world with two eyes, and the camera has only one eye. No matter what lens we use, any photo is a distortion of what our eyes see. "Klein, who has a very extreme personality, has a very biased view of things. His photography style is based on an extremely biased perspective, but he doesn't think he is distorting anything. He just felt that he wanted to express exactly how he felt about the world.

Personal newspaper

He recalled his creative motivation at that time and said:

"At that time, the mode of photography was Bresson style, and the significance of photography was objective elegance, distance, consideration and discretion. I was going to do the opposite and throw away the objective. I figured out a way to make everything exclusive. "

"I regard this book as the daily horn of the monster city, blowing out its scandals and exclusive newspapers at three o'clock in the morning. New york is a visual diary and a personal report. I hope it doesn't look like news. "

Klein's unconventional view of photography made him take a lot of photos with inaccurate focal length, coarse grains, irregular composition and unstable camera.

He cut the photo and deliberately made the tone contrast of the photo very large, giving people a dirty feeling. As far as quality is concerned, it seems to be the failure of ordinary photographers. However, in the street crowd photographed by Klein, these extremely anti-skill darkroom jobs make the photos reveal a riot atmosphere. Cover the bustling streets with ominous signs, as if he saw everyone's potential fears and tragedies hidden in a quiet life. This is the strong style formed by Klein's anti-photography. Before that, no one had photographed the street like this, and the performance field of photography took a big step forward in Klein's hands.

Aggressive Klein usually takes only a few months to shoot a theme, and then it takes a whole year to select photos and edit them into a book. After new york; Rome, Moscow and Tokyo are published in Europe, and the United States has never accepted him as a weirdo. These four books were only shot for seven years, and these seven years were the high-yield period of his creation, which passed creatively, but disappeared immediately.

At the age of 37, he put down his camera and planned never to take pictures again. He said: "I have done my best in photography, which is enough." Klein, who has never had a sense of belonging, could not find a safe haven in photography this time, because he did not use art to calm his heart, but expressed his unstable character through art. He not only exiled himself in life, but also in artistic expression. Klein was more radical when he made political films. He spared no effort to satirize business, art, politics, social ethics and traditional dogma. In fact, he is also satirizing what he has done, because he has succeeded now, and he has been fighting against success.

Surprisingly, Klein picked up the camera and took pictures after being reconfirmed. To some extent, he is a complete opportunist. He explained to himself that he took another photo: "I feel that I haven't spoken a language for a long time. Dull tongue and behavior, unfamiliar with things. I've been playing old photos now, and I'm tired of watching them myself. I hope to see what else I can shoot. " Klein, who is 50 years old this year, looks ten years younger than his actual age. He still has a handsome face, full of energy and pride.

After decades of wandering, he finally got a successful reward by taking photos that have been forgotten. I wonder if his recent photo is "anti-Klein"? Photography has always been different from any art form for him: "Photography is not painting, painting is composition, modification and change, which should be reduced and added, while photography is just a glance, with or without, death or life is a kind of" touch "."

Klein's Bump is a summary of his own photography concept. He seems to be testing everyone's reaction to weapons. His photos clearly reveal the existence of the camera and consciously interfere with the subject. Everyone should know that someone is pulling the trigger, so that the reaction face of 1 completely appears in the camera. When someone asks Klein to talk about his photography, he always says only three words: ". No one can know exactly what he is going to say. His behavior is so weird, his performance is so extreme, his words are so mysterious, but his photos are so strong. Everything he does scares everyone like lightning, but how many times can lightning strike?

Correlation evaluation

Klein, who rose from the ashes to become a superstar, has published four best-selling albums-new york (1956), Rome (1958), Moscow (1964) and Tokyo (1965). From the title of the book, we can know what Klein wants to express-the life scene of urbanites. From beginning to end, his photography is street life. Street photography has become the mainstream of image expression since 1950s, and photographers are scrambling to spin out their favorite images in the kaleidoscope of life. There is a reason why Klein's street photos can be recognized again from the dusty experience. His technique of expression can be said to be the most unique in the history of photography. It is a visual image under the mental cannon. The photographer is hypnotized by others, and the subject is hypnotized by the photographer. Everyone is sleepwalking and has complicated and unclear communication. Klein's street life is very aggressive, as if he wanted to create riots in the originally quiet crowd at any time. His expression was criticized by Bresson as "the whole thing is wrong." "Right" or "wrong" means nothing to Klein, because what he cares about is to completely break all the established photography laws and regulations. He is a shutter sniper with obvious intention and direct expression. He just pressed the shutter to keep the image. The camera became a weapon in his hand, and taking pictures for him was the act of shooting others with the trigger machine. Aim, shoot, touch! Touch! Touch! Sharpshooter Klein finally made it through. His subject "The Scene of Street Turbulence" is praised as "the revelation of images", which opens up the nature that was originally hidden in everyone's heart. Everyone seems to be alienated, unable to accept others or accepted by others. It seems that everyone has such depressed moments, and Klein makes everyone show it when facing the camera.