photo: © William Klein/Courtesy HackelBury Fine Art, London | Antonia Simone Barbershop, New York, 1961, Vogue.
William Klein, one of the most important and influential photographers and filmmakers of the twentieth century, received the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award at the Sony World Photography Awards on April 26.
He accepted the prize at the annual awards ceremony in London, alongside leading figures from the international photography world. A selection of his work was shown as part of the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House in London from April 27 through May 20.
Although he started as an abstract painter, he soon discovered photography as a way to shape his designs.
After being discovered by Liberman of American Vogue, Klein returned at age 25 to New York, where he earned a living as a fashion and documentary photographer. In 1957, he won the Prix Nadar for his book Paris where Life is Good and Good For You.
That same year, he met film director Fellini, who invited him to work on the film Nights of Cabiria in Rome. The photo book Rome followed in 1960, followed by Moscow and Tokyo in 1964. His artistic photography, with its pronounced grain and wide-angle perspective, shocked the established photography world and earned him a reputation as an anti-photographer's photographer.
Klein worked for Vogue from 1955 to 1965 and preferred to photograph his models on the street or on location. This inspired him to make his first satirical film, Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, in 1966. From 1980 onward, he focused on photography again.
In 1990, he won the prestigious Hasselblad Award. In 1997, he photographed New York again and exhibited this work in Barcelona and Paris. In 1999, he received the Medal of the Century from the Royal Photographic Society in London. A solo exhibition titled William Klein: Paintings Etc was scheduled at HackelBury Fine Art from September 21 through December 20, 2012.
A larger collection of William Klein's work was scheduled to be shown with work by Daido Moriyama at Tate Modern from October 10, 2012, through January 20, 2013.
After a career spanning half a century, Klein was still living and photographing in France at age 83.
The previous year, the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award went to Bruce Davidson. Earlier recipients included Eve Arnold, Marc Riboud, and Phil Stern. The honor is better known as the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Info: www.worldphoto.org.
