Klein's Rome re-visited
Once in a while, a photographer comes along and nudges photography in a new direction.
It may be a little simplistic to suggest that the history of photography runs smoothly or is something a simple timeline could illustrate. Though trends come and go, some stand the test of time. One photographer who helped define a decade was William Klein.
In the early 1990s, I attended a photographic course at the University of Westminster, or maybe it was still in its old guise as the Polytechnic of Central London. Anyway, the course was on documentary photography and was run by Gus Wylie.
Gus is a fine photographer himself whose books on the Hebrideans should be on the shelf of all lovers of black and white documentary work. I digress.
During the course Gus introduced me to many photographers, but one of his real "heroes" was William Klein, a photographer that until then I had not encountered.
The next day, I managed to pick up one Klein's books, Close-Up, in a second hand bookshop in Charing Cross Road. The title of that publication gives you a clue to his work, but it's not macro, it's just in your face.
Klein was born in New York in 1928, lived in Paris, and then moved back to the US where he published his book; Life Is Good And Good For You in 1956.
It was a ground breaking publication that would be the first in a series on cities. Klein wanted the book to feel as alive as the streets he photographed and employed graphic design, wide angles and right-in-the-face shots. There is no hiding from Klein's lens.
Later that year, Klein was in Paris at the same time as film director Federico Fellini. Klein rang Fellini's hotel and was put straight through, so riding his luck announced he had a new book out that he'd like to show him. Fellini told him to "come tomorrow at four".
That meeting led to Klein being offered the position as Fellini's assistant, though Klein was quick to point out that he had no "idea what an assistant did". It didn't seem to matter, and as it turned out Fellini had a number of assistants.
Once in Rome, a series of problems led to filming being delayed, so Klein took to the streets with his camera in hand. He wasn't alone on his walk: Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alberto Moravia acted as his guide and sometimes appear in the pictures.
The resulting set of photographs was published in 1959 and now, 50 years later, it has been re-issued with a new look.
This time, Klein's Rome consists of two volumes: one contains the pictures that are run full-page with no captions, and the other holds some of the graphic design that appeared in the original version, alongside additional commentary by Klein and others.
In the foreword, Klein asks:
"How could I make photographic sense out of a city that I barely knew and where I hardly spoke the language? But that's the problem with photography in general. I was willing to take a shot... I soon found out that the Romans reacted to the camera much like New Yorkers. Everyone felt they deserved to be photographed, immortalized."
Klein's work is as fresh as ever. Turn the page and you can't be sure what you'll see: a shot of Rome's classical architecture or a stolen moment, faces pressed towards the lens, arms and limbs entering and exiting the frame at all angles.
Oh, and don't forget the film grain - lots of it, some caused by blowing up segments of negatives. Klein has sucked the light of Rome into his little black box.
Klein is having fun and his subjects are too; he is as much in the picture as they are. The pictures are not aggressive. Klein was open: his subjects know he's there with a camera and they welcome him. The pictures confirm that Rome is a beautiful city, with great light and gorgeous people.
The shots are not all straight street shots. Perhaps Klein's best known picture was taken for Vogue magazine. Klein recalls that when he was shown the dresses for the fashion shoot, he knew it had to be shot on the Piazza di Spagna. Klein took a telephoto lens up onto the steps of the Piazza and instructed the models to walk back and forth until they started to attract attention.
Klein's captions states:
"I was up on the steps with my camera; nobody saw me. Soon men began to think these girls were crazy hookers and they approached them and tried to feel their asses. The editor from Vogue started to get nervous, afraid there would be, if not a gang rape, at least a traffic jam. The girls continued, the men closed in, the editor panicked completely and signalled wildly to me that we must stop. So we did. She gathered the girls and saved them from a fate worse than death and that was it. A wrap. And maybe one of the best fashion photographs ever."
William Klein: Rome by William Klein is published by Thames & Hudson.
I'm 
Comments
or to comment.