William Klein’s street photography - and what we can learn from him

[@lifetimesofamultiplemediam1003]

William Klein is where street photography all started for me around 2012... There was a documentary shown on the BBC, and my mind was blown!… I remember going to an exhibition of his at the Tate!… I don't even think I'd heard of street photography as a term before then! Also, I didn't realised that he had passed last year!… RIP William Klein! 🙏🏿

[@tedgoldman9121]

Love it! Yes, camera clubs with judges who live for the rules can stifle innovation. After ten years I had to leave my photo club. Can’t prove my images are better but I feel free to experiment. Thx!!

[@StreetSnappers]

Thanks Ted. Clubs have their place but they’re a long way behind the curve when it comes to street photography. I’m doing my best to inform them via a programme of talks and lectures but it’s a long journey!

[@martingreenberg870]

@@StreetSnappers I have a very mixed view of photography clubs. A group of us who were taking a photography class at the local community college decided to get together and share our images. We would organize photo Works and share the images. I was the only person interested in Street. I was not validated for my images. Eventually, I was not invited to photo Works and able to share my images. Effectively I became a persona non grata. A Street photography teacher told me last year I need to find my own tribe. Obviously, this group was not. It’s important to note that Klein was aware of the rules. It’s hard to break the rules if you don’t know them. He had his own aesthetic. It’s good to look at his work. A lot of it I don’t like. That’s OK. Once you know what you don’t like that helps guide you find what you do like. Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)

[@peterphoto7732]

I was in a ( camera club) in 1980's The twit running it said Bill Brandt, was a idiot. I never went back.

[@FriendlyfootcareIN]

I never tire of hearing Brian talk, wonderful

[@StreetSnappers]

Thanks so much :-)

[@MehmetUgur]

William was a huge inspiration for me. I loved how he was keeping street photography while paying the bills with fashion photography. A joyful person as well. I had the chance to see him in person and to take his portrait in 2019. Event, as a 93 years older in a wheelchair, he was like a kid with his huge smile and red framed glasses :)

[@sergiocasado2978]

Very well be put together sir, thanks a lot, always a pleasure and inspiration to revisit Klein’s work ❤

[@aquarellefoto]

Great discussion, Brian. My formal engineering training makes it very difficult for me to break the rules. I need to “untrain” myself to think outside the box. Blurry, out-of-focus, non-rule-of-thirds thinking baffles me. So my images tend to be good and ordinary, instead of striking and extraordinary. I’m working on it. Thanks for the challenge.

[@Chipop267]

This makes me want to go running out into the street with my camera! Just the inspiration and support I need.Thank you!

[@StreetSnappers]

Ooh, that’s great to hear Annette!

[@andreachiodi9577]

Such a master. And his fashion photography is out of the world.

[@TheMancityno1fan]

Thanks Brian - really useful and Informative - my takeaway "be different" and as an Aries that's easy for me to take on board

[@susandarby6607]

Thank you Brian, William was amazing! I have had many of the problems you mentioned. I had judges in photo club berate my entry. I have had work rejected. On FB in a Street photography group, a photo I posted started almost 150 comments argument of accusing me of posing the subject, that it was not Street Photography. On and on... People (whoever they may be) can not dictate how any art should be. I hate rules, and shoot what moves me (also with a wide angle). All its done is made me not post my work, and question what I feel. I don't want to be a me too! Its kinda sad. Anyway, thank you again!!

[@goncalopereira2957]

It’s so nice to hear your voice and the interesting content, thank you, welcome back and see you soon

[@StreetSnappers]

Thank you very much!

[@alexgimagery]

A really good video, quite confrontational in the sense of getting rid of conventions and doing it your own way. Thanks for the thought-provoking topic.

[@StreetSnappers]

Thanks for the feedback, Alex. Glad you liked it :-)

[@jcballester3565]

Great photographer and video Brian

[@StreetSnappers]

Thanks very much for the feedback :-)

[@ivanosrin2126]

Very useful indeed - and thought provoking Another example of how Rules can suck the spontaneity and interest out of photographs

[@RanchHand111]

Excellent information

[@tydra74]

I've spotted you in Venice during the last carnival, under the roof of the main fish market. I would have liked to ell you how much I appreciate your work and how much inspirational is for people like me, but I have been too shy to disturb you. (I guessed you were teaching at your workshop). Thank you for sharing all these informations.

[@teacherdude]

I had the chance to hear Klein give a personal tour of a retrospective and it treuly changed my photography. The ironic thing was that till then I had never heard of him and was only thereas a friend called me and said "get here quick, William Kilein is speaking"

[@thomaskovats162]

Thanks for giving so much to think or feel about!

[@StreetSnappers]

Thank for watching, Thomas, glad you enjoyed it :-)

[@peterlongenecker210]

Two Klein books now in my Amazon cart. I too wondered if William Klein and Saul Leiter knew each other during the 50s in New York.

[@StreetSnappers]

The books are lovely - but can be quite expensive! Yes, he and Leiter were contemporaries in the 50sand they had similar routes into street photography - but they had very different artistic visions.

[@JoeLopez]

Well done, very interesting

[@michaelofmelrose]

Jolly good William. it was most help!

[@StreetSnappers]

I’m glad you found it helpful!

[@jackbeltane]

Great video hopefully on the street photography fb group i might get some more photos approved, i often think its because i am over 50 and i dont follow the instagram trends, i try to be a bit maverick in my style .

[@StreetSnappers]

Thanks Jack! Regarding your pics in the FB group . . . it’s nothing to do with your age or with Instagram trends! But you need to follow the posting rules! Many images get rejected because folks don’t follow the rules and the main one in that you need to provide some narrative / explanation when posting an image. Please check out the rules and we look forward to seeing your pics!

[@julesc5571]

Very interesting and thought provoking video, Brian, thank you.

[@StreetSnappers]

Thanks for watching, Jules!

[@nlanca1]

A good appraisal of an interesting man. The segment about him in the BBC's Genius of Photography is very good (and amusing).

[@TheFilmFellow]

Fantastic video Brian! Concise and informative as always. I love it how you’ve said that you can give your images a voice. It doesn’t have to be just stoic/objective street photography. I interact and direct about half the time. I totally loved how Klein went against the grain. Also spot on with your advice Brian. After my Deep Ellum project which in shooting with a 50 I’m definitely going start shooting with a 35. I’ve been curious about that focal length for a long time but right now I wanna eat, sleep and breath 50. Always looking forward to your next video Brian. Really enjoyed this.

[@ernestthomas9406]

found it very useful, on another note thanx for information of his death, didn't know nothing about it👌

[@StreetSnappers]

Thanks for watching- glad you liked it :-)

[@nicobalestrazzi5073]

Thanks for this video, Brian! Very insightful pushing us to create always something different and interesting. This is the major take of Klein's vision. Love your channel and the way you convey your messages!

[@duanemcclun]

Hi Brian Another informative video!! To me I belive in the motto - 'when it comes to photography, there are no rules' Best Duane

[@babettesfeast6347]

Good to see you back. Are you still doing a zone focusing video? Thanks!

[@StreetSnappers]

Thanks for watching! Yes, I’ll be making a zone focusing video at some point - not sure when!

[@babettesfeast6347]

@@StreetSnappers thank you. It’s something I struggle with.

[@DennisFreeland]

Thanks for this vid on William Klein Brian, who had kind of dropped off my radar crowded out by all the other well known names out there. I liked the focus on rule breaking. To me this comes down to what our motivation is. If it is inwardly driven by the need for creativity then one will develop a personal style which will generate it own internal rules about what and how to take images. If it is driven by wanting likes and praise from others then you will by driven by the likes of instagram and other social media and produce little that is original. So create your own path and if others join you on the way fine but it should not be a prerequisite for action

[@raydunn3501]

That was an excellent overview of William Kline Brian,,, I think I have his attitude to photography as well ,,, I like what I like,,, and dont care if you dont,,,

[@StreetSnappers]

Thank you, Ray!

[@DileepJain]

When I started street photography, I was always told by my mentors and colleagues to use 50mm lens. But as I progressed into shooting more and more images, I found my best images indeed happened with 70-200, and that's how I broke one of the rules.

[@StreetSnappers]

Rule breaking is great!!

[@DileepJain]

@@StreetSnappers in my opinion there are only guidelines (but no rules); and if one sways from established guidelines to experiment, and such experiment results in images that are satisfactory at large, gets adopted by a majority of artists, and eventually becomes part of the guideline.

[@ricknicholson5894]

"slow film".......... back in the day, that was the only kind there was. I remember shooting at ASA (ISO) 200 feeling like I wasn't a "real" photographer, the pro guys were shooting at 100 or lower.

[@StreetSnappers]

Haha yes, I remember shooting commercial jobs at 25 ASA - imagine that now!

[@clairesmith2897]

Did he ever take a picture of a club that the GI Americans used to go every weekends, La Bohème..

[@stevesvids]

You only need rules when someone else dictates the outcome.

[@StreetSnappers]

Yes, good point!

[@lorenschwiderski]

Klein has good works, but if you tell a kid to look tough, you are now shooting the staged, thus filming theater. As long as the person viewing this knows this then it is authentic, otherwise it is a fraud, if labeled as street photography in the pure sense. If you present the camera and get a reaction, so be it, this is what happened. If you tell a person to walk this way, or look tough, or look up, then you are not only part of the photo, you are capturing theater. Just a show. It might be a great photo but then again, it is so easy to do. Capturing a true moment in time is better, in my opinion. But I get what Klein was saying in diving into the action, and find nothing wrong in that. Playing to the camera? Well, we all do some portraits along the way. Many times I see a pretty smile, but fail to get the shot, and ask them instead for a portrait -- not street photo, but street portrait, only to find them not replicating that natural smile or look they had. Most time the shots before or even after, they know they are on stage, so to speak, work best. Can you be amazed by how good some can pose or act -- yep, that too can happen. Henri Cartier-Bresson seems to see geometry as a very important element, though sharpness was not important to him. I assume that Garry Winogrand tilted images threw Henri into a tizzy as he became very uncomfortable. In regard to motion blur, the photo at a train station where one man is in focus, and the rest is but blurry contrast of busy life, is great. Now I see people trying to do this all the time. Enough already! Maybe something like it with a different twist would work, come to think of it --speed - ghosting, whatever. I really enjoyed your presentation, and some of those works by Klein are just stunning. I have a new 28mm on the way, and will be hitting the streets with it in full-frame. So far my only lens that wide has been a MFT Lumix lens, but I am impressed. Also impressed how easy and how hard it can be using a wide lens. One of those, gee this is easy, until it is not moments. 🤓 That frame difference, when used to 50mm, is like OMG, I was a mile away. Thank you, Loren

[@StreetSnappers]

Great points, Loren. He approach certainly divided opinion about what was candid. Personally, I prefer ‘true candid’ but I still appreciate Klein’s approach.