NEW YORK (Life is Good and Good for You in New York)
WILLIAM KLEIN (1928- )
Whilst the interpretation of the word "exhibition" might generally be considered to be the personal and physical viewing of art work or objects of special or current interest in, for example, a gallery, it can also be interpreted as:
... the displaying of something in public (Encarta Word English Dictionary,1999, p655)
and/or the demonstration of a particular skill or craft.
I went to London with the intention of visiting Tate Modern but due to personal circumstances I was unable to attend Klein's exhibition, so I have used the above interpretation of public display being, for example, books and electronically sourced material. Therefore, this discussion is based on my interpretation of hard copy and electronic materials. Particularly, Klein's seminal work, "New York" (Life is Good and Good for You in New York) first published in 1956 which forms our shared journey through an exhibition. With principal sources being in the public domain, I feel that it is an appropriate way to analyse Klein's philosophy and his work-which are inter-related. His work excited me so much that I wanted to explore it further.
I first became aware of Klein after watching the DVD
"Genius of Photography" followed by a programme on BBC1 as part of the
"Imagine" series. This programme was broadcast just before the exhibition of his photographs, together with those of the Japanese photographer, Daido Moriyama (1938- ), at Tate Modern. The programme intrigued me, and further encouraged me to investigate his work. Klein set the scene for me in the Preface to his book:
Before making the book, I was doing hard edged geometric painting in Paris. When I
came back to the city in 1954, after eight years away, I decided to keep a photographic
diary of my return. These were practically my first "real photographs". I had neither
training nor complexes. By necessity and choice, I decided that anything would have
to go. A technique of no taboos: blur, grain, contrast, cock-eyed framing and accidents,
whatever happens? As for content: pseudo-ethnography, parody and Dada.
Klein uses a considerable amount of ethnography within his work and this he admits, stating:
I was a make-believe "ethnograph" in search of the straight documents, the rawest
snapshot and the zero degree of photography. I would document the proud New Yorkers
in the same way a museum expedition would document the Kikuyus.
As Professor Brian Hoey states on his internet home page:
...What we call an emic perspective or what might be described as the "insider's point of view".
Klein seems to have taken this ethnographic approach because his images are a parody being an amalgam of "good" photography and news- they tell the viewer a story, a narrative. Klein's pictures are often like family shots mixed with, as in the signage discussed below, the daily newspaper. His humour is certainly from Dada because I see it as black humour and sometimes it appears to be absurd, as in his image titled "Gunman" New York 1954. Klein believed that his style of photography was not fashionable at the time and questions whether it is still not fashionable. His exhibition at Tate Modern alongside Daido Moriyama proves he is popular and current, also countless numbers of amateur photographers like myself roam the streets trying to emulate him, does this not also make him fashionable.
Klein writes about how he felt upon his return to New York and this is shown in his subsequent photographs. What he says is important to understand before we start our journey through his gallery. Because it underpins his work and my interpretation of it.
I knew the city but it was now in a different focus. All the sights and sounds I missed or had
forgotten or never even knew suddenly moved me very much. I was in a trance but I was
able to do something about what I felt. I had a camera, though I barely knew how to use it.
The books original title was "Life is Good and Good For You in New York". Half Madison
Avenue-ese, half tabloid headline. A joke of course, for me it was just the opposite. The place
was crummy, corrupt, uncomfortable, the anguish centre of the world.
Publishers in the USA would not touch the book so it was brought out in France, won the Nadar prize in 1957 and had English and Italian co-editions with a considerable amount of impact within the creative world. Having gone out of print, it has become a unique reference and a collector's item and is, from time to time listed in rare book catalogues.
Missing the Tate Modern exhibition, made me want to see more of Klein's work and felt - in some small way - that I could relate to his style of photography that is now called "Street Photography" being a term used in the "Imagine" programme:
One of the world's most influential photographers, he pioneered the art of street photography.
BBC1, "Imagine" - 20th November 2012, "The Many Lives of William Klein".
Jonathan Griffin states on his internet page about William Klein, on 26th February 2013.
As an ex-soldier he got a scholarship to study art at the Sorbonne in Paris under
Fernand Léger. His paintings from this time bear the unmistakable influence of
his master, and show figures in flattened scenes such as café's or the Paris Metro.
Klein's work became bolder and more abstract; soon the figures disappeared
altogether. In an exhibition in 1952, in Milan, his paintings consisted mainly of
black, white and red geometric shapes. An Italian architect asked Klein to paint
some rotating panels as room dividers for a new apartment. It was these works
that provided him with his first breakthrough; while photographing them, one
of the panels was turned, blurring the long exposure and creating a kind of
kinetic image for which Klein had been searching, "Sans Titre" 1952 as an
example. The Art Director of Vogue magazine (Alexander Lieberman) saw
them and invited Klein to work for the magazine. Klein went to New York
where with the support of Leiberman and Vogue, he soon began photographing
the city and people of New York.
In the "Imagine" programme, Klein talked about a film (Dead End 1937) directed by William Tyler. In this film there is a scene of an up-scale apartment block right next to a slum. Klein says:
The good life and the crappie life were very often juxtaposed. It was a
matter of life and death to walk five blocks to a real New York situation.
The
"Imagine" programme was broadcast just before the exhibition at Tate Modern; it covered the background and various events leading up to that exhibition. Part of the programme showed Klein viewing and approving his work at Tate Modern along with presenter Alan Yentob. His exhibition was, according to Klein, not to be retrospective but a spectacle with his images printed on a grand scale. Among the work on show were some of his early experiments with light and photography alongside his fashion images, also some of his work taken in New York, Moscow, Tokyo and Rome. Whilst Klein was also interested in film and fashion this is beyond the remit of this work which centres on his street photography in New York.
I researched using the internet and found plenty of information about Klein alongside many of his images. Since they were thumbnail in size, interpretation was hampered and downloading of images was prohibited - hence the fact that those are not included, to illustrate my text. A second hand copy of his book
"New York" would have cost me in excess of £400! After searching many libraries I located a 1995 edition of the book in the "Thompson Library" of Staffordshire University - success at last! In this book were some of the photographs Klein is best known for. The book is big and impressive in proportions; a "coffee table" book and because of this the photographs were also large - particularly the double page spreads. Thus I viewed the book as an exhibition of Klein's work although being only available on library reference.
In his book, Klein gives a clear meaning to his art, He refers to his style as being
"in yer face" which appealed to me and my own photographic preferences. He seems to have set a trend, disregarding the niceties of technicalities. This might be stated as just being point the camera and press the button. He did not appear to consider any technicalities. Like I previously suggested he seems to have set a trend, because his style has encouraged the Japanese photographer, Daido Moriyama - to take his photography to extremes that even Klein dared nor consider.
Klein started to shoot pictures on New York City's streets and as often happens with returning natives; Klein saw a familiar city through fresh eyes which excited him so much that his photographs could be interpreted as being raw and aggressive.
"Christmas Shoppers near Macy's", New York 1954, shows a photographer in an uninhibited manner with fast shooting, often from the hip rather like Roy Rogers and most important of all in my view, sometimes moving physically within his subjects. His images excited me considerably because they were alive and speak volumes about the people and city of New York at that time. They convey the way Klein felt about his home and are of a style that I would love to emulate.
In his book, Klein puts it like this:
I would look at my contact sheets and my heart would be beating, you know. To see
if I'd caught what I wanted. Sometimes, I'd rush into crowds - Bang! Bang! I liked
the idea of luck and taking a chance. Other times I'd frame a composition I saw and
plant myself somewhere, longing for some accident to happen.
Even his words are full on, so to speak! Not concerned with niceties just straight talking and honest about how he feels, to quote an old saying "what you see is what you get".
Klein's style of photography is, like his statement above, about distilling the experience of being out there - on the street - confronting one's subject and just, well, clicking the shutter. Care should be taken here not to believe that Klein was a stalker in the manner of Cartier-Bresson. Whilst Klein's pictures are candid, his work can be interpreted to be about his personal interaction with New Yorkers on their streets as it is about New York itself. The city, in his view, is the people.
Klein's book is my "exhibition" and plays a central role in the narrative critique of his work. The book itself comprises more than 250 pages with only ten having printed words - and this includes the Preface. Perhaps this is an indication of how Klein's work speaks for itself. However, he uses signs within his work - see below. Whilst the book is split into chapters I have interpreted these to be subject headings. For example,
Album, Streets, 5&10, Gun, I Need, Funk and City. I will be discussing a selection of these in detail as we journey through 'the exhibition'.
The beginning of the book has a section containing a brief description of each image. I interpreted this as an index with some having long paragraphs about a particular photograph yet others have only one or two lines of reference. What is interesting is that there are very few comments about the camera being used, which might reflect Klein's view of getting in there and just shooting pictures without any reference to technical issues - apart from the talent and experience of the photographer. Most of the written text is thoughts, rather than description of an image, whilst others seemed to be making a comment about what was happening at the time. Again, the images are - mostly - left to the viewer to interpret through, perhaps, his/her life experiences.
I was interested, therefore, by this lack of discussion of techniques. It appears as though Klein was less concerned about image quality than he was about the feeling emanating from the photograph. He says:
I'd just bought a 28mm lens and looking in the viewfinder realised immediately it would
become my normal lens. Pre-set, ever ready, I could even shoot without aiming. I waded
through packed side-walks, firing from the hip (actually the chest), only deciphering the
next day what I had done - framed by luck, instinct, whatever. I liked what the one-eyed
camera could do almost on its own, oblivious of Beaux-Arts composition, tired laws of
perspective, the golden mean and all that. Also, your eye is always at the same height,
your reflexes too conditioned, your intent too intrusive. An exercise in free the camera.
My interpretation of this is that Klein just shot his pictures. However, it is not as simple as that because he had years of experience as an artist and not least considerable talent. As Atkinson Fletcher (1947) writes and which is quoted on the Beaux-Arts website:
Student work in design falls into two categories - 1 Learning facts in detail and 2,
learning to integrate or compose them. Learning details is not learning to design.
The active principal of design is composition. A student is not learning to design
until he has started to compose.
At first view, one might ask what this has to do with Klein. It seems to me that some photography students might learn detailed facts and then learn to integrate or compose them. However, I agree with Atkinson Fletcher, in that one needs to compose ones work before one can design photographs. Nevertheless, technique is important but I am keen to "shoot from the hip". This is what excites me about Klein's work.
Walk through Klein's book with me starting with the first section which he has titled
"Album". All the photographs are of several people of which some could be family groups yet most appear to be of crowds who have gathered to observe something, say, a parade. All of them give the appearance, in my view, of being comfortable with the camera with the majority not even looking at it, although sometimes one person can be seen looking into the lens. I noticed that there was a difference where children were concerned. It needs to be remembered that these photographs were taken before the issue of paedophilia raised itself publicly. The children are always looking at the camera and appear happy to be doing so and posing was never a problem with them. Maybe they are mirroring Klein's attitude and approach.
I would find it difficult to photograph crowds in the same way as Klein did because people are now far more aware of the camera and suspicious of anyone using one - especially an SLR. This means that, perhaps, the Klein style is , by societal measures, on the decline - or, at least, very difficult to do where people are involved.
Moving into the section on
"Streets" the photograph entitled
"Get your camera out of my face" is stated to be the only one of Klein's photographs where someone refused to be photographed. Klein mentioned this in the interview with Alan Yentob on
"Imagine", discussed above. It seemed to be important to him that his work was viewed as being un-posed and "as it is". It needs to be remembered that this is through Klein's eyes. However, on looking at his photographs, I do see what he means and have recently tried this technique myself at Birmingham's outdoor market; the photographs taken will form the assignment at the end of this course. Klein's images in this section are, in my view, shot "from the hip" because most of the people appear to be ignoring the camera and the person behind it, although occasionally, one can see a sideways glance. Quite a technique in still photography to capture this behaviour. A particularly pertinent illustration is the photograph on pages 74&75 taken on a New York subway train, nine passengers and someone who Klein explains is a blind beggar can be seen in the photograph only one of the passengers is looking at the camera. This can be likened to my experiences of travelling on the London Underground - nobody appears to make eye contact and if they do, by accident, both look away. Klein describes this scene as:
A neat graffiti-free subway, neatly attired riders, an invisible blind beggar.
The next part of the journey through the exhibition is
"5 & 10" which Klein calls:
An institution the 5 & 10 cents store.
This section starts with an image inside one of the stores then moves outside to other shops and restaurants where Klein photographs the people inside, through the store windows. There seems to be a common thread within these photographs; signs, either selling something or informing about something, e.g. the name of a shop or the price of a particular item on offer. In the photograph on pages 80&81
, "Do it Yourself", New York 1955, a shop assistant is surrounded by signs advertising the goods that are for sale. My interpretation is that these signs are important when related to the images because they help to set the scene and the era in which the picture was taken.
As a member of a local camera club that holds regular competitions, the visiting judges have continued to tell us that an image containing something with writing on can be distracting and should, if possible, be avoided. In his photographs Klein appears to do the opposite and include as many written things as possible. Many of his photographs contain some sort of written matter. I do not find this a distraction from the image or the message of the photograph. My eye seems to circulate the picture, read everything, and then finish at the face or faces within the photograph. I make a personal journey round the photograph as one might with pictures in a static exhibition.
There is one photograph,
"Hamburgers 40 cents" New York 1955, which Klein has taken through the window of a hamburger bar. There are reflections and signs on the window glass. Inside can be seen some men with there faces looking back through the window towards the camera and the camera operator (Klein). Even with the view that the signs could be a distraction as could the reflections, my eyes still found the men's faces. It seems to be a truism of all Klein photographs I have seen. On pages 100&101 he has photographed what he describes
as a shop complex where customers go down a flight of steps to a barbers. Just visible is the head of a boy, yet, although this forms a small part of the image, my eyes immediately spotted him. I have found it interesting to note that in many of Klein's photographs, the subject's eyes are not always very clear and I wonder if this could be why I spot the faces easily. Am I, perhaps, using the human way of behaving in interpersonal communication - looking for the eyes and the messages they hold? Perhaps Klein wants me to look beyond the eyes into the soul.
Moving on in my exhibition one comes to the area Klein has labelled
"Gun". Klein says about this image:
To my annoyance this seems to be my Key image. It's been reproduced hundreds
of times to illustrate violence. It's fake violence, a parody, I asked the boy to point
the gun and look tough, and by the next frame we were both laughing.
This is an interesting piece of information since Klein likes to "shoot from the hip". He is obviously not averse to setting a scene and getting people to pose for him.
"Gun" is unique in respect that it features children! All but one has guns, and even one boy mimics a policeman by forming his hand into the shape of a gun. Children with guns were obviously common place, even to Klein, so much so that for pages 128 to 132 he has simply written as follows:
"Medium hard cases, White, Male". Like most boys, I played with toy guns which were like the ones cowboys used whereas in Klein's images they appear to be the type that gangsters had in that era - more like pistols. In some of the photographs, the children are dressed in clothes that are more adult in style, I wonder if this was set-up.
Progressing into
"I Need", I again saw the signs which show and comment about the period when the photographs were taken. Some are amusing and contain poor grammar, for example, the photograph, on pages 140&141
shows the following sign:
Please in
A nice way
I am asking
No to blo
Ck, me the
Door way
Thanks
Another of Klein's photographs in this section is of a poster showing two women with the printed words coming from one's mouth saying to the other "Mary Lou I'm in Trouble". Klein is again, making a comment. Maybe the viewer could assume that one of the women is pregnant or... It is nothing more than a photograph of a poster; however, it left me wondering "What's it all about"? This is something I find enduring about Klein's work - he leaves one wanting to interpret and ask question about the people in the pictures, rather than the technical competence of the shot.
The signs are photographed in such a way as to direct the viewer's eyes round them. It seems to me that Klein wants you to read the signs whilst keeping you wondering what they are actually about. This could be an attention-holding technique or a way of encouraging the watcher to look more deeply at the images. However, there could be another side to the discussion in that Klein could well be trying to show how many signs there are about, almost too many to read - a sign overload!
The penultimate gallery is that of "Funk". My first impressions of this set of images was that they had movement - almost as though Klein had asked his subjects to dance! For example the photograph known as "Dance in Brooklyn", on page 178, Klein says "End - of - the - day, the light was going, used a slow shutter speed". Some images are blurred because it seems they were taken in a very low light, having little depth of field. Others are very grainy with apparent camera shake. Perhaps due to the lighting conditions a slow shutter speed might have been necessary. Even so, it is obvious to me what I am looking at. Again, the image is important rather than the rule of freezing movement with the use of flash.
In the photograph "The Bars of a 2 by 4 Park, a Bench, Home for the Homeless" Klein has taken an image which is different to the others. Although I would question that some of his pictures might have been set-up (see above), this one seems to have been definitely posed. In the background there is a man asleep on a park bench. In the foreground there is a boy lying somewhat awkwardly across some railings, mirroring and mimicking the figure of the man on the bench. The boy is looking into the camera with an expression of un-surprise. It is this fact which indicates to me that the photograph was probably set-up. However, that does not mean it distracts from the message Klein wishes to give.
Our final gallery is "City" being the last selection of photographs in Klein's book. They appeared to me to be of the same high quality as the previous sections; however, they left me feeling a little flat because I felt that they should have been at the beginning. I see them as scene setters comprising "cityscapes", views of New York, views that Klein saw when he first returned to New York after his European travels. In a couple of the photographs, "Wall Street from Under", New York 1955 and "Trinity Church", New York 1955, Klein has pointed the camera upward at the top of the skyscrapers thus giving the viewer the cavern-like impression of the New York streets that he surely felt when he was walking round. Klein's description of the above images is as follows:
The Canyon's,as they say, of Wall Street. So named after the wood Palisade, built
in 1653 by the Dutch settlers to protect the village of Nieuw Amsterdam from the
feared Indians of northern Manhattan.
There are forty pages of photographs in the "City" section of the book, only four double page images have people where you can clearly see their faces. This may be the reason why I do not get as much of a thrill out of them as I do those in the other sections.
However, when my personal journey through the exhibition was over I was very reluctant to return "New York" to the library shelf - I wanted to look at the images again and again... I wanted to...
Like Klein says in his Preface:
...roam the streets like Predator 1 with the ultimate secret weapon: the Truth Camera.
However, in the 21st Century this is not possible but I am trying to find my own way. Like Klein, I want to make the ordinary into the extraordinary.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hard copy material
ATKINSON FLETCHER D, 1947, an introduction to Architectural Design; CA: University of California.
Encarta World English Dictionary; 1999, London: Bloomsbury ( site accessed 25th February 2013)
KLEIN W, 1995, New York: Dewi Lewis Publishing, Manchester.
URLs
<beauxartslondon.co.uk> (sit accessed 25th February 2013)
<bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pOrrc> (site accessed 25th February 2013)
<brianhoey.com/> (site accessed 25th February 2013)
<http://snipurl.com/26h1me3> (site accessed 25th February 2013)
<tate.org.uk> Tate Modern, William Klein and Daido Moriyama, 10th October 2012 - 20th January 2013
(site accessed 25th February 2013)
<Jonthangriffin.org/2013/02/11/William-klein/ > (site accessed 26th February 2013)
Electronic media
The Genius of Photography - How Photography has Changed our Lives: BBC (DVD)
Television
BBC 1, "Imagine" - winter 2012, 20th November 2012, The Many Lives of William Klein.
And Finally.
Wherever possible I have given the photographs used as examples in my essay, titles. The descriptive text for each image in the 1995 publication of William Klein's "New York" book does not contain titles as such. They seem to have been given to his photographs at a later date, possibly when reprinted and sold in galleries for example. I would guess that Klein didn't see the need for titles, feeling that the pictures would speak for themselves.
