Biography

April 19, 1926 · Manhattan, New York, USA

September 11, 2022 · Paris, France (undisclosed)

William Klein first came to Paris as a G.I. on July 13, 1947. It didn't take long for him to pick up "the most beautiful girl in Paris" and, half a century later, they are still married.

Friends with Delphine Seyrig.

Innovative photographer of urban street life and modern fashion. He worked for Vogue magazine for ten years.

American photographer, artist and documentary film maker who worked in France. He studied at the Sorbonne and with the painter Fernand Leger.

[on Mr. Freedom (1968)] I wanted the film to be seen, to be popular. I would have liked Marlon Brando to play Mister Freedom, or someone like that - Lee Marvin, maybe. And for the girl I wanted a pop singer. But Delphine Seyrig was sitting right there where you are and she saw the scenario and said, "What's this?" I explained and she said, "I can do it!" I said, "What do you mean? You're going to be like a bimbo? You don't care?" "No, I can do it!"

[on working with Delphine Seyrig in Mr. Freedom (1968)] She was kind of American - she spent the war in New York and she was really as American as a French girl could be. So she dug the whole idea and she was great and very funny and sexy and everything. She was like my sister; I loved her.

There were things you could do with a camera that you couldn't do with any other medium - grain, contrast, blur, cockeyed framing, eliminating or exaggerating gray tones and so on. I thought it would be good to show what's possible, to say that this is as valid of a way of using the camera as conventional approaches.