New York 1954-55
Artist: William Klein (American, 1928 - 2022)
Printer: Jean-Marc Bustamante
Date: Negatives 1954-1955; prints 1978
Dimensions:
sheet: 12 in. (304 mm) x 15 7/8 in. (404 mm)
Medium: Gelatin silver prints
Place of Origin: Paris; New York
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Mrs. George W. Stevens Art Fund and Carl B. Spitzer Fund
Object number: 2003.13A-L
Label Text:In 1954, William Klein returned to New York from Paris, where he had been studying painting with Fernand Léger. Klein wanted to do a book about his home, New York City. Alexander Lieberman, art director of Vogue, arranged to fund a portfolio of photographs. One of Klein’s inspirations for the series was the New York Daily News, a tabloid known for grainy images and brutal headlines. To create this work of urban theater, Klein used only one 35 mm camera with three different lenses. Taking pictures rapidly and often not having the time or inclination to focus, the results are at once confrontational and lyrical, graphically harsh and poignantly honest. He wrote, “I saw the book as a tabloid gone berserk, gross, over-inked, brutal layout, bull-horn headlines. This is what New York deserved and would get.” (From the Introduction to the 1995 edition of the book William Klein, New York 1954-55)
DescriptionOne black cloth portfolio containing 12 black & white, gelatin silver prints, along with title page, colophon, and description in French and English.
Not on view
In Collection(s)