Product Details
Hardcover
254 pages
Distributed Art Publishers
Published 1996
From Library Journal
In 1954 Klein returned to the city of his youth after living the life of a painter in Paris since the end of World War II. Vogue art director Alexander Liberman had agreed to pay him to photograph the city for a few months, though he was almost totally lacking in knowledge of or experience with a camera. The result was a collection of exuberant, cinematic images of the city's people and neighborhoods-by Klein's own description "pseudo-ethnography, parody, and Dada"-that Conde Nast never saw fit to publish. Reminiscent of Weegee in their grittiness, but with more humor and less sensationalism, and of Robert Frank in their unity of personal vision but not as bleak, the photographs are as vibrant today as when they were taken. Klein did publish a collection of these photos in Paris in 1956 in a book that is now a much-sought-after collector's item, but the man who went on to become a successful fashion and documentary photographer never saw this unique series widely exhibited or published in his home country-until now. Last year the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art presented these photos as part of its inaugural exhibits. And at long last libraries with an interest in photography will be able to pick up this selection of celebratory, quintessentially American images. Highly recommended.
Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. |
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