I watched a documentary film this week named “Many lives of William Klein”. William Klein, born in New York in 1928, is a great photographer, painter and filmmaker. He is one of the pioneers of the street photographers.

Klein was first educated with painting in France and soon jumped in photography. In 1954, he started shooting street photos in his hometown New York. It is interesting that many of his street work looked like staged photos. In these photos, everyone was looking at different direction. Some looked into the camera and may wonder what was going on. Some people looked at the people that camera pointing at, and try to figure out what the photographer was shooting at. Most of Klein’s street photographs include people or human figures in frames. Unlike another great pioneer of street photography Henri Cartier-Bresson, who always pursued the decisive moment patiently, Klein usually engaged to some extent with the people he photographed. You can tell that people in frames were aware of him. Their behaviors or expressions may be affected. He even asked them to pose for him. One of his famous work about a boy pointing the camera with a gun was acutely posed shot, he explained in the movie.  

 

William also applied his street style to his fashion work successfully. Either using a telephoto lens or wide angel lens or combining light painting with fashion shoot, or even bringing girls to streets, he did many experimentations and created very unique and iconic fashion photos. William claimed that he could do what ever he wants in fashion shooting was because he was not a fashion photographer. I totally agree with him. Sometimes taking pictures an amateur may have less limitation or distracting thoughts.

Personally, I find taking pictures on streets could be challenging. Sometimes I felt not safe while waking in an unfamiliar area. I have to be very careful to avoid potential threat. A few days ago when exploring some places in Atlanta, I was followed by a mad guy in an empty suburb street for almost a mile until I found a gas station as a shelter. Another problem is that I missed a lot of great moments when people passing by me. I did not hold up my camera because I was afraid to get into trouble because I don’t have a layer. When I asked people to take pictures of them, I was asked questions and the moments and feeling had gone. On the other hand, I think William handled these very well. He is a fearless photographer. A lot of times he just aimed his camera directly toward people on streets. He even took many street photos in some areas with tough neighborhood. I believe he get through these with his courage and humor.

Many photographers regard William as their inspiration, including Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama. William’s photos are experimental and full of revolt. He was considered as one of the thirty most influential photographers in history.