William Klein

Acteur, Directeur, Scénariste, Éditeur

19 avril 1926 — 10 septembre 2022 (96 ans)
William Klein (April 19, 1926 – September 10, 2022) was a photographer and filmmaker noted to for his ironic approach to both media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in the context of photojournalism and fashion photography.

Trained as a painter, Klein studied under Fernand Léger and found early success with exhibitions of his work. However, he soon moved on to photography and achieved widespread fame as a fashion photographer for Vogue and for his photo essays on various cities. Despite having no training as a photographer, Klein won the Prix Nadar in 1957 for New York, a book of photographs taken during a brief return to his hometown in 1954. Klein's work was considered revolutionary for its "ambivalent and ironic approach to the world of fashion", its "uncompromising rejection of the then prevailing rules of photography" and for his extensive use of wide-angle and telephoto lenses, natural lighting and motion blur. Klein tends to be cited in photography books along with Robert Frank as among the fathers of street photography, one of those mixed compliments that classifies a man who is hard to classify. The world of fashion would become the subject for Klein's first feature film, Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, which, like his other two fiction features, Mr. Freedom and Le Couple Témoin, is a satire.

Klein directed numerous short and feature-length documentaries and produced over 250 television commercials.

Though American by birth, Klein lived and worked in France since his late teens. His work has sometimes been openly critical of American society and foreign policy; the film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum once wrote that Klein's 1968 satire Mr. Freedom was "conceivably the most anti-American movie ever made".

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Connue pour

  • Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo ?
    Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo ?1966
  • Mr. Freedom
    Mr. Freedom1969
  • Muhammad Ali, the Greatest
    Muhammad Ali, the Greatest1969
  • Broadway by Light
    Broadway by Light1958
  • Le Couple témoin
    Le Couple témoin1977
  • Loin du Vietnam
    Loin du Vietnam1967
  • The French
    The French1982
  • Grands soirs et petits matins
    Grands soirs et petits matins1978
  • Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther
    Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther1970
  • Contacts
    Contacts3 saisons
  • In and Out of Fashion
    In and Out of Fashion1998

Filmographie