Transgressive, nosy, and extroverted. Discover William Klein in the documentary In & Out of Fashion, in the Moritz Feed Doc catalog on CaixaForum+.
A Visionary Fleeing Conventions
William Klein is one of the most versatile and influential visual artists of the 20th century. He arrived in Paris in 1948 as an American soldier, fell in love with European bohemian life, and decided to make it his home. This position between two worlds gave him the perfect distance to analyze both the American dream and European refinement with an extremely critical and satirical eye.
A defining characteristic of his work was the absolute freedom with which he moved in and out of fashion, street photography, and cinema, breaking down academic boundaries.
The Revolution of Street Photography
Before Klein’s arrival, street photography was dominated by the classical composition of masters like Henri Cartier-Bresson—a paradigm William turned completely on its head. He used wide-angle lenses, motion blur, cropped framing, high contrast, and varied shutter speeds to portray the dizzying pace of major metropolises.
Applying the adrenaline of New York to his photographs and capturing that raw street energy was his initial driving force until he completely deconstructed the visual language of the era.
The Deconstruction of Fashion
In the mid-1950s, Alexandre Liberman, artistic director of Vogue, hired Klein, launching a key collaboration in the history of photography. Self-taught, Klein experimented freely with the camera, as Liberman trusted his rebellious, unapologetic imagery. He became a pioneer by taking models out of the studio and placing them right in the middle of New York traffic, using mirrors, reflections, and telephoto lenses to blur the boundary between urban reality and fashion fantasy.
A Love-Hate Relationship with Fashion
Klein never considered himself a fashion photographer. For him, fashion was an excuse to experiment and play with color or composition. He didn’t treat the camera as a precision tool; he often shot without looking through the viewfinder, relying blindly on instinct.
Despite his critiques of the fashion industry, it was a world that both fascinated and fueled him in equal measure. Beyond being a journey through his career, the documentary In & Out of Fashion serves as a reminder that, despite trying to get out of the fashion world (in), it is within this very discipline that Klein left us some of the most iconic images in the history of photography.
