William Klein

Born in New York on April 19, 1926, William Klein came from a family of Hungarian descent; he grew up in Manhattan and studied sociology at the City College of New York. 

William Klein moved to Paris in 1948, where he studied painting first under André Lhote and then under Fernand Léger. He made a sensational debut in the world of visual art in 1956 with his book on New York, Life Is Good and Good For You in New York: Trance Witness Celebrates which revolutionized the conventions of photography at the time and would leave a lasting impact on generations of photographers. Other works would follow: Rome (1959), Moscow (1964), Tokyo (1964), Paris+Klein (2002).

From 1957 to 1967, he worked for Vogue , and brings fashion to the streets through playful and dynamic photo shoots. Here again, true to his penchant for provocation, he breaks new ground, moving far beyond the conventional poses of studio photography.

In 1968, he directed his first film Broadway by Light , which will be followed by about ten feature-length documentaries or fiction films, including Who are you, Polly Magoo? , who won the Jean Vigo Prize in 1966. In 1980, he returned to photography without giving up filmmaking.

in the late 1980s, combining painting and photography, he enlarged sections of his contact sheets and painted directly onto the prints, creating what he would call “painted contacts.”

Klein received the Hasselblad International Award in Sweden in 1990 and was named a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 1991.

He died in Paris in September 2022 at the age of 96.