Generally regarded as a pioneer of American photography and film making, William Klein was born in New York, USA in 1928, but has lived in Paris for most of his life...
Who? Generally regarded as a pioneer of American photography and film making, William Klein was born in New York, USA in 1928, but has lived in Paris for most of his life. In this exhibition Klein’s work is presented and examined alongside the work of Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama, who was born in Osaka in 1938, and has lived and worked in Tokyo since 1961. Both Klein and Moriyama have had extensive and highly acclaimed careers, including solo shows at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (Klein) and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Moriyama).
What? Taking as their starting point the cities which Klein and Moriyama spent time in during their artistic careers, both artists explore the everyday activities of modern street life, in particular politically-charged protests and demonstrations, as well as urban motifs such as advertising and street signage. As each artist occupies opposing suites of rooms, these two retrospective exhibitions, showing work from the 1950s and beyond, sit side by side, enabling the viewer to compare and reflect as they move from one to the other. Not only is their subject matter noticeably similar, but so too is their photographic style, which is often grainy and out of focus. Neither artist restricted their output to photographs alone, and in amongst the 300 works that make up the exhibition, there are contact sheets, photographic installations and film, through which viewers are invited to reflect on the medium of photography itself.
"Taking as their starting point the cities which Klein and Moriyama spent time in during their artistic careers, both artists explore the everyday activities of modern street life"
Why? Co-curated by Simon Baker, Curator of Photography and International Art at Tate, and Juliet Bingham, Curator at Tate Modern, this exhibition, the launch of which coincides with the annual highlight of the London art calendar, the Frieze Art Fair, explores the relationship between these two great photographers for the very first time. Throughout their careers both artists have been proven themselves as pioneers of their medium. Klein gained particular notoriety throughout his lengthy practice, which included a stint working for Vogue, (demonstrated in the exhibition through the inclusion of fashion photographs such as ‘Piazza di Spagna, Rome’). He is also regarded as a great perpetrator of the photo-book, an important tool for the dissemination of the photographic image, which is also explored in the show. Through his early love of the Polaroid photograph, as shown through his installation piece in the exhibition entitled ‘Polaroid/Polaroid’, Moriyama also demonstrated an early interest in the instant image, long before the development of the digital.
William Klein + Daido Moriyama is at Tate Modern until January 20 2013.
Text by Siobhan Andrews
