Views on Château Lafite Rothschild - 2009

Born in New York in 1928, William Klein discovered the excitement of Paris at the age of twenty. He fell in love with the French capital so much that he never left. 

Before becoming a photographer, William Klein was introduced to painting, notably in the studio of André Lhote, where he developed a style of his own.

“By turns a painter, photographer, and filmmaker, William Klein is an unclassifiable artist in love with large cities.”

Then, with the firm “will to lift the aura of the photography bordered by white”, he went down to street level, photographing with, a wide angle, the chaos of society.

In the late 1950s, he directed his first short films – ‘Zazie in the subway’ (1960) – and he would later deploy his talents as a director in many activist documentaries, satirical comedies or advertisements, particularly in relation to the fashion world.

He directed, among others, ‘Who are you, Polly Magoo?’ in 1966, a film that made him famous to a wide audience, and ‘Fashion in France’ in 1985 or ‘Aux grands magasins’ in 1964 with Simone Signoret.