0:00:02 > 0:00:04This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:04 > 0:00:05This is William Klein.
0:00:05 > 0:00:10A man who's spent his life refusing to be pigeonholed.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13I have film, I'm ready to go.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17He's a pioneer of 20th-century photography.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20His raw, dramatic images
0:00:20 > 0:00:22of '50s New York helped create
0:00:22 > 0:00:24the art of street photography.
0:00:25 > 0:00:30His pictures are like a fist in the face, coming straight at you.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32You are not going to miss them.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35This one book has probably been the most influential
0:00:35 > 0:00:37photographic book ever published.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42And these are his striking and hugely influential fashion images.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48He's made countless films,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51including the first ever documentary about Muhammad Ali...
0:00:51 > 0:00:56I predict that tonight, somebody will die at ringside from shock.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59..controversial political films,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03and his classic satire of the fashion world,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Divine.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11It's hard to believe that that same person is capable
0:01:11 > 0:01:18of such beauty, at the same time be so powerful, and angry.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Today, at the age of 84, Klein still displays an enviable lust for life.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28I'm a New Yorker. I was able to bullshit all these guys.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30I can still do it.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35And now, an acclaimed retrospective at Tate Modern
0:01:35 > 0:01:38is celebrating Klein's dazzling range of work
0:01:38 > 0:01:40over a career of more than 60 years.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46In the months leading up to the exhibition,
0:01:46 > 0:01:48I caught up with William Klein
0:01:48 > 0:01:51back on the streets of his native New York,
0:01:51 > 0:01:53and in his home city of Paris,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57to try to understand his unique creative vision
0:01:57 > 0:02:00through the eyes of the man himself.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03Wide-angle lens?
0:02:03 > 0:02:05I'm going to look great.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40William Klein is one of the great Americans in Paris.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45After the war, he did his army service in Europe,
0:02:45 > 0:02:46and moved to France,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49where he fell madly in love with Janine,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52who would be by his side for over 50 years.
0:02:53 > 0:02:55Throughout his life,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58he has worked regularly on both sides of the Atlantic.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00But Paris is home.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07After Janine died seven years ago, he has lived here, alone,
0:03:07 > 0:03:08in a grand top-floor apartment.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12What's that you've got? Is that your team?
0:03:13 > 0:03:16This is the Yankees.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20I was against the Yankees in the old days,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24now I am sort of...mellowing.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26What do you miss about New York?
0:03:26 > 0:03:29The great restaurants.
0:03:29 > 0:03:30I'm kidding!
0:03:30 > 0:03:34- I was going to say!- I don't give a shit about New York restaurants.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42Thanks to a US Government scholarship for ex-soldiers,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45William was able to study in Paris as an artist.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51Paris was the centre of art in the world.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56I thought, you know, after the war, I would have a few bucks
0:03:56 > 0:04:01and I would be able to live like a king in Paris.
0:04:01 > 0:04:07Go to La Coupole and clap Picasso and Giacometti on the shoulder.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09I thought that was the life.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Klein studied under the legendary French sculptor and painter, Fernand Leger.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23He was imposing. He was like
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Rocky Marciano or Lee Marvin.
0:04:26 > 0:04:32He was a big, husky, Normandy peasant.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36He spoke in very simple terms.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41He said all you 20-year-old apprentice geniuses,
0:04:41 > 0:04:45you want to be well known,
0:04:45 > 0:04:47you want to get galleries,
0:04:47 > 0:04:48you want to meet collectors,
0:04:48 > 0:04:50you want to make money,
0:04:50 > 0:04:51and bullshit.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Leger was one of the great pioneers of modern art.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00His work explored aspects of Cubism and futurism,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03and also included extraordinary experimental films.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08His ambitious multidisciplinary approach to art
0:05:08 > 0:05:12provided a vital inspiration to the young Klein.
0:05:13 > 0:05:19To go to Leger and to see a real 100% artist,
0:05:19 > 0:05:24a great innovator and theoretician, was great.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28The early work that Klein produced was full of bold lines,
0:05:28 > 0:05:32rich colours, and a strong graphic eye
0:05:32 > 0:05:34that would appear throughout his work.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42- OK.- So we're going to the studio?
0:05:47 > 0:05:50- Did you go to the Folies Bergere last night?- I wish.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53Today is...what? Thursday, Friday?
0:05:53 > 0:05:55It is Friday. Is it open on Friday?
0:05:55 > 0:05:57They have a special Friday show.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04In the Montparnasse district of Paris,
0:06:04 > 0:06:06William still pays regular visits
0:06:06 > 0:06:08to the studio he has been using for over 50 years.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Here, everything is carefully curated
0:06:17 > 0:06:20with Klein's trademark red and black branding.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25Here, we need more density.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29The exhibition at Tate Modern is a few months away,
0:06:29 > 0:06:31and William's assistant, Pierre-Louis,
0:06:31 > 0:06:33is overseeing the preparations.
0:06:33 > 0:06:34Something very light.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39For William Klein, an exhibition is never just a retrospective,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42but a spectacle,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44with his images often printed on a grand scale.
0:06:46 > 0:06:47C'est bien.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51'Among the work at Tate Modern will be
0:06:51 > 0:06:54'some of his early experiments with light and photography.'
0:06:55 > 0:06:59You're very prescriptive about how your shows are done,
0:06:59 > 0:07:04how the exhibitions are mounted, so what was your concept for the Tate?
0:07:04 > 0:07:08- What was my hope and vision?- Yes.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10A good show.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Bravo, Pierre-Louis.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15Will you be doing that at the Tate, Pierre-Louis?
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Is it performance art, this?
0:07:18 > 0:07:21No, Pierre-Louis only does this in Paris.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24Let the Tate manage for themselves.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30It's these abstract images that first brought William
0:07:30 > 0:07:33to the attention of Vogue magazine.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38After he produced a series of works based on painted panels
0:07:38 > 0:07:40that he'd made for an Italian architect.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44I photographed the panels,
0:07:44 > 0:07:50and the light wasn't very good, so the exposure was long,
0:07:50 > 0:07:56and I had Jan, my wife, turn panels while I photographed,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00and I saw these geometrical forms which blurred,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04and I thought, well, maybe this is something new.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09And I had the idea that if I had a negative,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11I could do anything with it.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16The renowned art director of Vogue, Alexander Liberman,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19was struck by Klein's visual imagination
0:08:19 > 0:08:22and invited him to work for the magazine.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26So, he gave me a contract. It wasn't a lot of money,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29but it was like 100 a week.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34- Which, at that time was... - Good money!- ..really good money.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46So, despite his love of Paris, in 1954,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49with the financial support of Vogue magazine,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52he found himself back in New York.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Here, he created a groundbreaking visual portrait of the city,
0:08:58 > 0:09:00unlike anything that had gone before.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07A book of photographs that was not simply a collection of images,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10but more like a movie experience, with the pictures accompanied
0:09:10 > 0:09:13by Klein's own wry commentary.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16'New York is a monument to the dollar.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21'The dollar is responsible for everything, good and bad.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24'Everybody comes for it. No one can resist it.'
0:09:24 > 0:09:26What Klein did
0:09:26 > 0:09:28in the mid-'50s was to take the language
0:09:28 > 0:09:30of things like tabloid newspapers,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33that very grainy, black-and-white, direct way of looking at the world.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37I think coming back, he really smelled the energy of New York
0:09:37 > 0:09:41and wanted to translate that through these very grainy, black and white,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44almost stream of consciousness images.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48He had this eye that was kind of fearless.
0:09:48 > 0:09:54His pictures were raw, rugged, they were in your face.
0:09:54 > 0:10:00He seemed to have the courage to go forward rather than step backwards.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06'Klein's New York book, first published in the 1950s,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09'is now one of the most collectable of all photography books.'
0:10:09 > 0:10:13I've never seen the original of this book,
0:10:13 > 0:10:15I've only seen a version of it.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17'It came with an ironic subtitle,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20'"Life is good and good for you in New York",
0:10:20 > 0:10:25'and a playful, unconventional layout.'
0:10:25 > 0:10:30So, here is a photograph that was taken on St Patrick's Day.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32All these guys are Irish.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35A lot of the people in my photographs
0:10:35 > 0:10:39either look at me, or there is always somebody to the side
0:10:39 > 0:10:43who is looking at the group and saying,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46"What is this guy photographing?"
0:10:46 > 0:10:49It wasn't usual at that time. This is 1955, '54.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53It was kind of surprising
0:10:53 > 0:10:57for a lot of people to see me photographing them, you know.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07'The book takes the reader on a very personal journey
0:11:07 > 0:11:10'around the neighbourhoods of '50s New York.'
0:11:14 > 0:11:18'Some 10,000 flourish in the several streets of Chinatown.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22'About 80% are bachelors. The average age, 51.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26'Many still have wives and children in China.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32'The Italian preteen club present baseball player card collection.
0:11:34 > 0:11:35'My old neighbourhood.
0:11:35 > 0:11:40'The stick ball team with girl cleanup hitter captain, rare.'
0:11:43 > 0:11:48This is a composed photograph. This is in Little Italy.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50The dwarf was the mascot,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53and these guys played with the dwarf.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58And the dwarf was there. They were proud to show me their mascot.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01He was proud to be their mascot.
0:12:02 > 0:12:11I thought it was very unsavoury and...insulting,
0:12:11 > 0:12:12but they didn't.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28'To understand Klein's fascination with the streets he photographed,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31'I went with William back to the neighbourhood where he grew up.'
0:12:31 > 0:12:34How much affection do you have for New York?
0:12:34 > 0:12:39I'm wondering, do I have an affection for New York?
0:12:39 > 0:12:41I tolerate New York.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44You tolerate New York. You love Paris?
0:12:44 > 0:12:46I love Paris.
0:12:49 > 0:12:55Let's go to the corner of 108th and Amsterdam.
0:12:55 > 0:12:56That's the house where you lived.
0:12:56 > 0:13:02That's the house I lived, and I'm pretty sure there's no plaque!
0:13:06 > 0:13:08William Klein was born in 1928
0:13:08 > 0:13:11to a Jewish immigrant family,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14rocked by the impact of the great Stock Market Crash.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19My grandfather was a tailor,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21and he was successful.
0:13:21 > 0:13:29And then my father, who took it over, played the stock market in 1929,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32which wasn't a good time to play the stock market.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35And he lost everything.
0:13:38 > 0:13:44We had to move, and we were in a real dump on the West Side.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48The family were forced to move to a tough neighbourhood,
0:13:48 > 0:13:50not far from Harlem.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56The good life and the crappy life were very often juxtaposed.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01There was a film that came out when I was in New York at that time,
0:14:01 > 0:14:03called the Dead End Kids,
0:14:03 > 0:14:07and in this film, you'd see an upscale apartment house
0:14:07 > 0:14:11and right next to it was a slum.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15It was a matter of life and death to walk five blocks.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17A real New York situation.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19Out of sight!
0:14:19 > 0:14:26I was brought up on the streets, part of a New York underclass.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Here we are. OK, thank you.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34A pilgrimage.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36201.
0:14:36 > 0:14:37That's it.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Look at the door. The door is very chic.
0:14:40 > 0:14:41And the buttons.
0:14:47 > 0:14:49I just rang number one.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55My friend William... Oh, thank you. ..Used to live here,
0:14:55 > 0:14:59- so we're trying to... He lived here...- OK.- ..many, many years ago.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02- What apartment?- The first one, here.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08KNOCKS REPEATEDLY
0:15:11 > 0:15:13- It's kind of a... - It's a knock, all right.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16People inside, they hear that, they think it's the police
0:15:16 > 0:15:19or the Mafia!
0:15:20 > 0:15:25'There's no-one home, but it doesn't seem to bother him too much.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28'I can see that William is a man always living in the moment.'
0:15:28 > 0:15:31- You go to school? - Yes.- Down the block?
0:15:31 > 0:15:33'Take him back to the place he was brought up
0:15:33 > 0:15:36- 'and there's no great nostalgia.' - Can I ask you a question?
0:15:36 > 0:15:39'He's more curious about the people living here now.'
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Are there still cockroaches around?
0:15:41 > 0:15:45I saw one, maybe last week, but I have a cat, so he took care of it.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49- Were you born here? - Yes.- In this house?- Yes.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52My grandmother's been here for 40-something years.
0:15:52 > 0:15:53And you like this neighbourhood?
0:15:53 > 0:15:56It's home to me, it's all I know.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02When Klein's family lived here, this was a poor community,
0:16:02 > 0:16:04hit hard by the Depression.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Tell me about your father.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11So, when you came here, your father was sort of coming downmarket,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14- then...? - He was moving down the ladder.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16HE CHUCKLES
0:16:16 > 0:16:22I guess I felt it was going down the scale
0:16:22 > 0:16:25of success in America.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27And...
0:16:27 > 0:16:30I was not too excited.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33During this period, in his early teens,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36William was already captivated by art,
0:16:36 > 0:16:40trekking across town to visit the Museum of Modern Art.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47What made a boy of 13, 14 make his way to the Museum of Modern Art?
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Uh, you know, must be in my genes somewhere.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55Uh, I guess...
0:16:55 > 0:16:58there was also an element of wanting to get out of
0:16:58 > 0:17:00a shitty place like this.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03NEWSREEL: 'No dusty storehouse for old Masters,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07'this museum is an up-to-date showroom for the art of our time.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10'Painting and sculpture, architecture and still photography
0:17:10 > 0:17:12'and the motion picture.'
0:17:12 > 0:17:17Art seemed to be, for me, a way of...
0:17:17 > 0:17:19moving out, moving up.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Listen, let's get out of this fucking place!
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Did you like my old house?
0:17:31 > 0:17:36- I liked the congeniality of the company we met there.- Yeah.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41It was a real kind of community. Was it like that when you were there?
0:17:41 > 0:17:42No!
0:17:45 > 0:17:47We're going up to Harlem.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Harlem was one of the neighbourhoods that featured
0:17:51 > 0:17:53prominently in the New York book.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57When you went there with the camera,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00did that give you a kind of excuse to be looking, do you think?
0:18:00 > 0:18:04The camera was an excuse, yes.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07'Horsing around in Harlem.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10'"Man, what do you want to take our picture for?"
0:18:10 > 0:18:13'Trying to escape the lens, but playful, a game.'
0:18:16 > 0:18:21A lot of people would say, "Are you crazy, going up to Harlem?"
0:18:21 > 0:18:26People that I would be more or less afraid of looking at directly,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29I felt at ease taking their photographs.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33'The Whites never go to Harlem, never even think of it,
0:18:33 > 0:18:38'for Harlem lies off-limits, somewhere in the bad conscience of the city.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41'New York time missed a beat here.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45'Since the Whites left Harlem, the clocks stopped.'
0:18:45 > 0:18:47GIRLS CHATTER
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Despite the fact that he has some difficulty moving these days,
0:18:58 > 0:19:02William's eager to meet and talk to people on the street.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07With the help of our driver, John, we went to talk to the locals.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13I can only guess what he'd have been like in his prime,
0:19:13 > 0:19:16- prowling the streets of New York. - Does he know what you know?
0:19:16 > 0:19:19No, I know SOME of what he knows...
0:19:19 > 0:19:22You were what, photographing in Harlem how many years ago?
0:19:22 > 0:19:25- Many years ago.- Many years ago? - How many years? The '60s?
0:19:25 > 0:19:28- The '50s?- '50s.- Oh, yeah?
0:19:28 > 0:19:32- Who were the subjects you were photographing?- Just people.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36- Just people. Oh, all right. - I photographed the kids.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38'Close close-up.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40'You could go into an empty Latin Harlem then,
0:19:40 > 0:19:44'tell the kids, "Move closer, hold it, look here, play the harmonica."
0:19:44 > 0:19:45'You could do that then.'
0:19:47 > 0:19:51It was a real community, everybody looked out for one another.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55- Here, in Harlem?- Yes, everybody looked out for one another. You know?
0:19:55 > 0:19:58See, a lot of Caucasians, they were afraid to come to Harlem.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02- Yeah.- All the movie stars, politicians,
0:20:02 > 0:20:07- they used to come uptown to see our shows.- And you guys couldn't get in.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10Yeah. We used to go in the back. We had to go in the back.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12THEY CHUCKLE
0:20:13 > 0:20:14Yeah.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18William still carries his camera with him everywhere
0:20:18 > 0:20:20and today is no exception.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26- You've still got a good eye, William.- Yes.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29- You have a good eye. - That's easy, man.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32That's what made you a good photographer.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34- Cos you've got a good eye! - A good eye.- Yes.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37You need more than that.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40The thing with Klein's New York is you start looking through,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43and it's the accumulation of these pictures which really counts,
0:20:43 > 0:20:47so by the end of it, you haven't just seen a collection of individual pictures,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50you've seen an accumulation, which creates this noise, which gives off energy,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53which reflects so accurately
0:20:53 > 0:20:56what was going on in New York in the mid-1950s.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59'Pseudo-poster for the American dream.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03'Italian cop, integrated Hispanic,
0:21:03 > 0:21:04'Yiddish momma,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07'African-American lady, plus beret.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09'The melting pot.'
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Klein wasn't the only pioneering street photographer,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18but his harshly-framed, often blurred and distorted pictures
0:21:18 > 0:21:22had a look that was entirely his own.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29Another famous photograph, which...was used a lot.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33These kids were just play-acting and they weren't...
0:21:33 > 0:21:35Threatening.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37..as tough as they look.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42I asked them to look tough and for me, it's a self-portrait, you know?
0:21:42 > 0:21:46I also played on the street with guns,
0:21:46 > 0:21:50but I was also a sort of angelic...
0:21:51 > 0:21:54So I was both of them.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59You know you're not supposed to smoke on the BBC, William.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02You're not used to doing what you're told, are you?
0:22:02 > 0:22:06'These contrasting sides to Klein's personality -
0:22:06 > 0:22:08'the straight-talking street kid and the sensitive artist -
0:22:08 > 0:22:12'are a key to understanding the richness of his work.'
0:22:12 > 0:22:13This has been gruelling.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15'I sense that rawness'
0:22:15 > 0:22:17in his make up.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21I know for a fact he doesn't suffer fools gladly,
0:22:21 > 0:22:23that you mustn't upset him, so,
0:22:23 > 0:22:27there is an emotional quickness and rawness about him as a person.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31And it definitely comes across in his photography.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39'Get your camera out of my face. Unusual, but OK.'
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Klein developed a language which was, at the time, incredibly radical
0:22:46 > 0:22:47and unique.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50Now we see it all the time, and in fact, every time we DO see it,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52they are, in fact, children of Klein.
0:22:53 > 0:22:58His distinctive style has influenced generations of photographers around the world,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01including the leading Japanese photographer, Daido Moriyama,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05whose work is being shown alongside Klein's at Tate Modern.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10And for one legendary British photographer,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Klein's example was an inspiration.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16It was completely in-your-face, the way he worked.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20And that's what attracted, you know, him to me.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23I thought, "This is the kind of man I would like to be,
0:23:23 > 0:23:27"this is the way my photography has to be - no half-measures, straight in."
0:23:31 > 0:23:34You look at Klein's work and you believe you're looking at reality.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37There's a strong sense of composition,
0:23:37 > 0:23:39but then real-life and randomness
0:23:39 > 0:23:41is allowed to come in and out of the frame.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46'Cashier in Broadway Cinema.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51'At home in her glass case on the sidewalk, she reads, dreams,
0:23:51 > 0:23:56'phones, makes up, completely oblivious of the sidewalk audience.'
0:23:58 > 0:24:00As well as enigmatic moments
0:24:00 > 0:24:04fleetingly captured by Klein's camera, the book is full of scenes
0:24:04 > 0:24:08where the subjects are clearly very aware of what's going on.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11I think some of his best pictures
0:24:11 > 0:24:13are a mix, where you get
0:24:13 > 0:24:16a kind of gallery of characters in the shot.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19And some of them are clearly aware of what's going on
0:24:19 > 0:24:21and are playing up to the camera.
0:24:21 > 0:24:27And you feel this very collaborative theatre in the pictures.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43- John?- Yes? I'm getting my hair cut.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45You're getting your hair shaved.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48- That's not a haircut, that's a shave, man.- I'm getting my hair shaved.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53Ah, you're a good man, William.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55The gods are with you.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00Why are you walking around with film? You got to get with the times!
0:25:00 > 0:25:03I like film. I'm old-fashioned.
0:25:03 > 0:25:08- William may seem old-fashioned in today's digital age...- I have film.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11I'm ready to go.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14.. but when he began taking pictures,
0:25:14 > 0:25:16they were a radical departure from the work of many
0:25:16 > 0:25:21of his contemporaries, including the fabled Henri Cartier-Bresson.
0:25:21 > 0:25:27Cartier-Bresson kept this distance, almost as if he was a ghost,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31walking amongst the people of the streets of the world, you know?
0:25:31 > 0:25:35Whereas Klein make no pretence that he was there
0:25:35 > 0:25:38and he was coming after you with that camera.
0:25:38 > 0:25:39John?
0:25:39 > 0:25:44- Yes?- Sing us some Placido Domingo.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46HE SINGS
0:25:52 > 0:25:56The irony was, William took his pictures using a camera
0:25:56 > 0:26:00he'd bought from Cartier-Bresson.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03It shows so ably and so well
0:26:03 > 0:26:06how photography can be so different with a different author
0:26:06 > 0:26:09and different photographer behind the camera.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11- Excuse me, what's your name?- Ramona.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16- Ramona, are you going to cut my hair a little bit?- Yes, I do now.- OK.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Klein's New York images were obsessed not only with the people,
0:26:20 > 0:26:25but with how New York was a city constantly selling itself.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29This was the age of Mad Men, the birth of advertising
0:26:29 > 0:26:32and Klein's images brought a satirical eye
0:26:32 > 0:26:35to a city in which people were drowning in the big sell.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40'Advertising today is mainly grotesque.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44'Such a conspiracy has developed between advertiser and public
0:26:44 > 0:26:49'that it's become a gag. The public is grateful, yaks, then goes along.'
0:26:51 > 0:26:54Vogue never printed his photographs.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57In fact, he couldn't find a publisher at all in America
0:26:57 > 0:27:00for his unfashionably gritty pictures.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05William, by then back in Paris, just thought they'd missed the point.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08IN FRENCH
0:27:25 > 0:27:28- John, do you know where we're going? - Yes.- Good.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32Look at this. What's going on?
0:27:32 > 0:27:36When he was starting, Klein was one of a small group of pioneers,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39documenting the streets around them.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41- Is this Times Square?- Yeah.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Now, the urge to capture everything with a camera
0:27:44 > 0:27:46is a mainstream obsession.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54- Everyone's got a camera now, you know?- Everybody, that's the thing.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00What's amazing is that all these people buy a camera
0:28:00 > 0:28:04and start using it and what they do are the most avant-garde things
0:28:04 > 0:28:09that no professional cameraman would dare to do.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13In 1958,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17still experimenting with new ways of documenting New York,
0:28:17 > 0:28:21William picked up a film camera and came here to Times Square,
0:28:21 > 0:28:27where, over a period of nights, he shot a remarkable short film -
0:28:27 > 0:28:29Broadway By Light.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33His mesmerising, beautifully-scored meditation on a city
0:28:33 > 0:28:36enthralled to the consumer image is regarded by many
0:28:36 > 0:28:39as an early Pop Art classic.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50When I did Broadway By Light,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54I had a tripod and a small Arriflex.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58The people who came by and saw me filming it...
0:28:58 > 0:29:02at, you know, 11 o'clock at night, in the freezing cold,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05they would look at the camera and tripod and...
0:29:05 > 0:29:09"Hey, man, you got a great camera, man."
0:29:09 > 0:29:13But they never asked me what I was filming or why.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21I got visitors from the FBI who came by and said,
0:29:21 > 0:29:24"We want you to make a film that glorifies America."
0:29:25 > 0:29:29- I said, "OK."- Really?- No.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34I did it a bit in that spirit.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38A lot of people said, you're doing a book
0:29:38 > 0:29:43so dark and black and anti-American.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46I said, I'll do something which will be beautiful,
0:29:46 > 0:29:50in colour, which would also talk about
0:29:50 > 0:29:55consumerism...and selling.
0:29:57 > 0:30:03It was a conscious effort to continue my diatribe
0:30:03 > 0:30:10against America but in candy-coloured heaven.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13You call it a diatribe but there's something playful about
0:30:13 > 0:30:14what you do as well.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18It's a hymn to America, it's a hymn to money,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20a hymn to commerce.
0:30:20 > 0:30:25It's a hymn to the most beautiful thing in New York.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44What was it like when you came here all those years ago?
0:30:44 > 0:30:47When you put your tripod up, where did you put it?
0:30:47 > 0:30:50When I did this film? Right here.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52It was like a living room.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54All the walls were covered.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56And, er...
0:30:56 > 0:30:59It was intimate and gemutlich.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01Comfortable. Gemutlich.
0:31:01 > 0:31:03Yeah, really.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08This is the interesting thing about Klein's vision of New York.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13There's a warmth but also an edge, which seems to capture the city,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17its people and the one thing they've always had in common.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24Everybody in New York thinks they're special.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27They all thought they were entitled to be famous.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30They thought they deserved to be photographed.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33They were all complicit in those pictures that you took.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36- They were.- They wanted to be part of it.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38They wanted to pose for you.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Klein's portrait of a city has attitude and energy,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49fuelled, as always, by his mischievous sense of humour.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53- You took a picture with that?- Yeah. - Let's have a look.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58That's quite fun.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00It's all right.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Throughout this period, William was still being paid by Vogue magazine.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09It wasn't long before he was persuaded
0:32:09 > 0:32:11to take fashion photographs,
0:32:11 > 0:32:15bringing the same invention and originality
0:32:15 > 0:32:18that his Vogue mentor, Alex Lieberman, had first spotted
0:32:18 > 0:32:20in his early work.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24Alex Lieberman
0:32:24 > 0:32:27was always looking for the kind of energy
0:32:27 > 0:32:32and the kind of immediacy of a news photograph,
0:32:32 > 0:32:34which was one reason that I think
0:32:34 > 0:32:37that Bill's photography appealed to him so much.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41It was because it had that sense of action.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47What's exceptional about William's work is that
0:32:47 > 0:32:50every single image is so powerful.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54He's not satisfied with the ordinary.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57He's only interested in the extraordinary.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01Where Klein's New York photos had been in your face,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05many of his fashion images adopted new techniques,
0:33:05 > 0:33:08experimenting with tele-photo lenses,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11mirrors and some of the dark room trickery he'd learnt
0:33:11 > 0:33:14in his youthful Paris days.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20But he had not lost his passion for the street
0:33:20 > 0:33:23and for all the drama and confrontations it offered.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27Bill was more interested in photography
0:33:27 > 0:33:28than in fashion.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33He was not the only photographer who did photos out of doors.
0:33:33 > 0:33:40But Bill was the only one who put the girls in amazing situations,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44like standing around in the middle of the traffic
0:33:44 > 0:33:48or climbing on statues or in and out of fountains.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51The more difficult the situation,
0:33:51 > 0:33:53the better he liked it.
0:34:14 > 0:34:15At the Tate exhibition,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18one of Klein's most iconic fashion images
0:34:18 > 0:34:20is now taking pride of place.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26- Here we are.- Here we are.- In Rome. - Piazza da Spagna.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29I was doing a story for Vogue
0:34:29 > 0:34:32on the fashion collections in Rome.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36And I was shown
0:34:36 > 0:34:37these two dresses.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40I said, "I know what we'll do.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45We'll do it on the pedestrian crossing at Piazza da Spagna.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49I had these girls walking back and forth,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52doing doubletakes because they had more or less the same dress.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56I was up on the steps of the Piazza da Spagna.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58I was experimenting...
0:34:58 > 0:35:00You were on a tele-photo?
0:35:00 > 0:35:04A tele-photo. You see everything is flattened out.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07They couldn't see you so they didn't know what was going on.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10Nobody could see me. I was half way up the steps.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13These men didn't understand.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15They thought they were hookers.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18They walked up, starting feeling their ass.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22The editor from Vogue started panicking and she said,
0:35:22 > 0:35:26"We're going to create a scandal."
0:35:26 > 0:35:28So we had to stop.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30I was on the sidewalk,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34biting my nails, terrified that the police would turn up
0:35:34 > 0:35:37cos traffic was beginning to slow,
0:35:37 > 0:35:39men were beginning to congregate.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42The whole thing was getting a little fraught.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44Bill was laughing his head off.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48That was typical of how we worked on location.
0:35:48 > 0:35:53I like these situations where things just developed.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57Did this picture cause quite a sensation when it came out?
0:35:57 > 0:36:01All the photographic stores were besieged by photographers,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05buying tele-photo lenses for their fashion shoots.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09I think it's a good idea. Still think it's a good idea.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18While his New York images feel like a real portrait of the city...
0:36:20 > 0:36:23..his fashion images constantly play with the idea of reality,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26drawing attention to their artifice.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36I'm not so sure William actually likes fashion.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39He always says to me he can take it or leave it.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42He says that the difference is when he's working on reportage,
0:36:42 > 0:36:47he's capturing a moment in time that he can't control.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49He gets very excited by that.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53But when he's working in fashion, it tends to be
0:36:53 > 0:36:57he has assistants, there are sets, it's about imagery
0:36:57 > 0:37:01and creating a more playful idea.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10Because he understood how to create a powerful picture,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13he created a lot of iconic fashion pictures.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16Great photographers like Avidon, Penn, Klein,
0:37:16 > 0:37:19they establish their ideas and then the fashion world comes along
0:37:19 > 0:37:23and uses them and that's fine.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26You reap the reward of being well-paid.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29It means your work can go more mainstream.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31William is still in touch with some of his models.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34In New York, he caught up and reminisced
0:37:34 > 0:37:37with one of his favourites, Dorothy MacGowan.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42- This is Dorothy again.- I'm standing on a platform.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44I fell down.
0:37:45 > 0:37:46Did he care?
0:37:47 > 0:37:49I think he felt like a jerk.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52I was very angry. I had to go to the doctor.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56He got so involved in his work,
0:37:56 > 0:37:58he forgot that I was real.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01DOROTHY LAUGHS
0:38:04 > 0:38:07Dorothy was one of the supermodels of her day.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10But Klein's energetic, spontaneous style
0:38:10 > 0:38:13was a world away from what she had been used to.
0:38:13 > 0:38:18With Bill...it was crazy!
0:38:18 > 0:38:21We had a lot of fun. We laughed. Nobody came near us.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23They just stayed away.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28There were no rules, at least as far as HE was concerned.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32That's a little shocking to some people.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34Tough!
0:38:34 > 0:38:37How was the background created?
0:38:37 > 0:38:40I would take a flash and I had an assistant with lights,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43he would go around the silhouette,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46put it over her head and do this.
0:38:46 > 0:38:47It looks like a Japanese ideogram.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51I love that. Sometimes, we had the flash ourselves
0:38:51 > 0:38:53and we created our own, like here.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56- She didn't know.- You're so full of baloney!
0:38:56 > 0:38:58Here I created my own flash.
0:38:58 > 0:38:59I'm almost sure.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03All you did was hold out your hand for this big cheque.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06A big cheque? Are you kidding? From Vogue?!
0:39:06 > 0:39:08THEY LAUGH
0:39:08 > 0:39:11- Think again! - She was very funny...
0:39:11 > 0:39:14Seeing William and Dorothy together, you can tell
0:39:14 > 0:39:16how the teasing quality of the pictures
0:39:16 > 0:39:19is right there in his relationship with his models.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22I never kissed any models.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25I was the only one who never flirted with the models. True?
0:39:27 > 0:39:29Well, I... No, that's not true.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32- Practically.- What do you mean that's not true?
0:39:32 > 0:39:37First of all, you were much cuter than a lot of the photographers.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40It was very clear that you
0:39:40 > 0:39:44and Janine were very clearly a couple.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46There was nowhere to go with you. You understand?
0:39:46 > 0:39:50You were a man who was married and you were happily married.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52We were.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59In 1966, after nearly a decade taking fashion pictures,
0:39:59 > 0:40:01William made his first feature film -
0:40:01 > 0:40:03Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? -
0:40:03 > 0:40:06casting Dorothy as a young fashion model making her way
0:40:06 > 0:40:11in the business in a parody of a celebrity-obsessed media.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26What was it about the fashion world that intrigued you so much?
0:40:26 > 0:40:32The film is not about fashion. It's about media.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34Fashion is part of media.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38It is also something that is pretty funny,
0:40:38 > 0:40:42graphic and inventive.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46I thought, "Let's do a film on fashion."
0:41:01 > 0:41:03We were all pressed into service.
0:41:03 > 0:41:05Bill was doing this film on a shoestring.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10Jenny and his wife did the costumes.
0:41:10 > 0:41:11The whole thing was done for fun.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18My rate for Vogue was 75 a day!
0:41:18 > 0:41:24- Yeah!- My rate for Polly Maggoo was 6 a day!
0:41:24 > 0:41:266 a day?!
0:41:26 > 0:41:28- Talk about...- Top rate then.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32- 6 a day?- 6!
0:41:32 > 0:41:34I can't believe that you got so much.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36You're so full of baloney!
0:41:36 > 0:41:38'Your shoes are dandy!'
0:41:48 > 0:41:53It was supposed to be a spoof, a send-up but unfortunately
0:41:53 > 0:41:57the editor-in-chief of American Vogue was not amused!
0:42:02 > 0:42:05To many of those in the know, it was all too obvious
0:42:05 > 0:42:08who had inspired the film's larger than life fashion editor.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12Divine. Di-veen!
0:42:12 > 0:42:15The fashion editor was based on Diana Vreeland
0:42:15 > 0:42:20and her way of making pronouncements
0:42:20 > 0:42:25like "shocking pink is the navy blue of India".
0:42:25 > 0:42:26Or "think pink".
0:42:36 > 0:42:40Did you intend that to be Diana Vreeland?
0:42:40 > 0:42:42Oh, it was Diana Vreeland.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44HE LAUGHS
0:42:44 > 0:42:47No doubt about that, except that nobody
0:42:47 > 0:42:49ever made fun of her.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05While fashion was paying the bills, Klein's love of the street
0:43:05 > 0:43:07remained undiminished.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12Among the many striking images at the Tate exhibition
0:43:12 > 0:43:14are pictures from Klein's critically-acclaimed books
0:43:14 > 0:43:17on Moscow, Tokyo and Rome.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37'In Rome, all seems pregnant with meaning.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40'Men look tormented. They watch each other
0:43:40 > 0:43:43'and they are watched by uniformed carabinieri.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49'Via del Corso. Worried passer-by. What goes on? Nothing.'
0:43:49 > 0:43:52Sometimes they look like film stills.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55Sometimes the look like these snapped moments where a photographer
0:43:55 > 0:43:58has taken a picture very quickly.
0:44:01 > 0:44:03But they're all too well composed
0:44:03 > 0:44:07to really be like that. They're all too taut, organised frames.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14By the end of his travels,
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Klein had turned street photography into a remarkable art form.
0:44:20 > 0:44:221961, Moscow.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24May Day, Red Square.
0:44:24 > 0:44:31Facing me, Lenin, Marx, Engels and a traditional parade.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34In the foreground, several comrades from the KGB.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39I think with his set of city books, Klein developed a language
0:44:39 > 0:44:43that was, at the time, incredibly radical and unique.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45And this has spawned many imitators
0:44:45 > 0:44:48and it had a profound effect on the photography world.
0:44:50 > 0:44:55The subtle detail in his pictures comes partly from intuition,
0:44:55 > 0:44:57but also a smart, technical awareness
0:44:57 > 0:45:00of how to get that something extra.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05As he showed me, back at Tate Modern.
0:45:05 > 0:45:12This girl is there in her bikini on the beach on the Moscow River
0:45:12 > 0:45:16and that's probably her grandfather or father
0:45:16 > 0:45:21and her mother in the background, and what's interesting is that
0:45:21 > 0:45:27this is a wide-angle lens, so I would aim the camera at her,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31and she thinks I'm obsessed with her, she's the centre of the world,
0:45:31 > 0:45:35but she doesn't realise I see things happening behind her.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38And we have a family portrait.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Yes, it's a family portrait.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45Every photograph, I look at the contact,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48it brings back memories of everything,
0:45:48 > 0:45:53how I was feeling, tired, full of beans, photography is like that.
0:45:55 > 0:45:56I'm a champ!
0:45:56 > 0:45:58I'm the real champ!
0:45:58 > 0:46:01With his talent for taking photographs
0:46:01 > 0:46:03that looked like film stills,
0:46:03 > 0:46:07Klein was keen to continue his own adventures in film.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09And, as luck would have it, there was one man
0:46:09 > 0:46:12he seemed born to collaborate with - Muhammad Ali.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17BOTH: Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Ha!
0:46:17 > 0:46:20His 1964 film, Cassius The Great, takes us
0:46:20 > 0:46:24incredibly close to the young superstar in the making
0:46:24 > 0:46:28and includes the memorable and often replayed encounter
0:46:28 > 0:46:30of Ali and the Beatles.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38But it was a typical mix of luck and charm
0:46:38 > 0:46:41that gave William such privileged access.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46I went down from New York to Miami
0:46:46 > 0:46:48and there was an empty seat on the plane
0:46:50 > 0:46:55and I recognised the guy sitting next to this empty seat, Malcolm X.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59And I said, "Is this seat free?" He said, yeah.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03And I sat down next to him. And we hit it off.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08Malcolm X was a very cool, intelligent guy.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13And he was curious about a Jewish film-maker from New York.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16And he said, "I'll give you a hand."
0:47:16 > 0:47:20And he let the word out that I was OK.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23And I went to Clay's camp.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25And immediately I was accepted.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29Jabbing and left-hooking. Jabbing and left-hooking.
0:47:31 > 0:47:36Yeah, I'm a pretty fighter. I'm pretty smooth. I'm something new.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41Klein's documentary about Ali is an almost forgotten classic.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45It doesn't just portray the boxing legend
0:47:45 > 0:47:47right at the start of his career.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49It explores what the story had to say about
0:47:49 > 0:47:53the racial tensions of the time.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57In one scene, he brilliantly choreographs the wealthy white men
0:47:57 > 0:48:02who control the young fighter, as they introduce themselves to camera.
0:48:02 > 0:48:03I am W Land Brown,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07chairman of the board of Brown-Forman Distillers Corporation.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09I'm also a farmer and in the oil business.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14Warwick Bingham, the assistant publisher of the Courier, Journal
0:48:14 > 0:48:16and Louisville Times.
0:48:16 > 0:48:17I'm William Cuttings,
0:48:17 > 0:48:21president of the Brown Williamson Tobacco Corporation.
0:48:21 > 0:48:22I travel the world!
0:48:22 > 0:48:25To travel the world, you should be pretty, like me.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28He found in Ali a perfect alter ego, you know.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32Here's a guy that wants to do it his way.
0:48:32 > 0:48:38Pugnacious, determined, super articulate, super smart,
0:48:38 > 0:48:42so, Klein behind the camera is a perfect foil to Ali
0:48:42 > 0:48:44the performer, in front of the camera.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47- People saying we crazy. - Let 'em keep thinking it!
0:48:47 > 0:48:50- They say we're crazy. - Let 'em keep thinking it.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53- They say we're crazy. - We are crazy! Ha!
0:48:53 > 0:48:55THEY LAUGH
0:48:55 > 0:48:58Unsurprisingly, Ali relished what he saw.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05He said, "Where's my film?" I said, "I brought it."
0:49:05 > 0:49:11And we went to his room, and he had steaks brought up, and ice cream.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16When the film was over he wanted to see it again, and we saw it three times.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20INDISTINCT CHANTING AND SHOUTING
0:49:25 > 0:49:30Throughout the 1960s, Klein became increasingly politicised.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35Camera in hand, he documented the revolution on his doorstep.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38Dit qu'on juge pas les hommes par rapport a leurs origines
0:49:38 > 0:49:39sociaux, sociales.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41Filming the frenzy of debate
0:49:41 > 0:49:45and argument in Paris during the student occupations of 1968.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50HE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:49:50 > 0:49:55But, as always, it was unmistakably Klein's eye on events.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00The French filmmaker Chris Marker said of Klein's films that
0:50:00 > 0:50:03you could pick any frame, and it would look like one of his photos.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08You could see what he meant.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11CHANTING
0:50:15 > 0:50:19Elsewhere, Klein turned his camera on the Black Panthers,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22advocates of violent revolution.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24The rules are directed
0:50:24 > 0:50:29in what the pigs of the mass media report, you know?
0:50:29 > 0:50:32Showing his usual fearlessness,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35Klein gave a voice to their controversial leader
0:50:35 > 0:50:39Eldridge Cleaver, on the run in Algeria from the FBI.
0:50:39 > 0:50:44These pigs tried to kill me, shot me in my leg,
0:50:44 > 0:50:48and they were going to kill me, and the only reason I'm not dead
0:50:48 > 0:50:51this minute, there were too many people who came out
0:50:51 > 0:50:54of their houses, and started screaming at these pigs to stop.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02But Klein's provocative political mischief-making
0:51:02 > 0:51:04caught up with him in the end.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09His contribution to the anti-war film, Far From Vietnam,
0:51:09 > 0:51:12would have serious repercussions for his career.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19I knew that there was going to be the biggest anti-war rally ever
0:51:19 > 0:51:22in America, and I went to New York for that.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24It was really worth it.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26Because, for and against,
0:51:26 > 0:51:34the hysterical pro-war people screaming, "Bomb Hanoi, bomb Hanoi!"
0:51:34 > 0:51:38It's kids like this are getting burned up by napalm,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41kids like this, and what's more, people like you,
0:51:41 > 0:51:45grown-up people, being burned up for no good reason at all.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47Stop!
0:51:47 > 0:51:49Meanwhile, William was still taking fashion photos.
0:51:49 > 0:51:55And Far From Vietnam didn't go down well with his Vogue paymasters.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58Napalm! Nah! Nah!
0:51:58 > 0:51:59Nah!
0:51:59 > 0:52:03They said, now you're doing movies, you don't really need our contract.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06My contract was,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09I lived on that contract.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11Were you shocked by that? Or did you...
0:52:11 > 0:52:13- I was pissed off. - Yeah.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15I wasn't that much attached to Vogue.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20And I found it a little hard to do fashion photographs.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24It was a time when it was hard to be an American.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34We're driving in the richest city in the world,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37and all you've got is potholes.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48Klein has continued making films and taking pictures
0:52:48 > 0:52:53in a maverick, fiercely independent career which spans more than half a century.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58Today he's one of the most collected photographers in the world,
0:52:58 > 0:53:02and still takes a close interest in new versions of his work,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05meeting up with his New York dealer to approve new prints
0:53:05 > 0:53:08of some of his most popular images.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12I thought the most interesting thing about this was all the mist...
0:53:12 > 0:53:15The steam atmosphere in the room.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17That must be quite hard to photograph.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21We used cinema smoke...
0:53:21 > 0:53:23..floating around.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26It made it interesting for me to print, I know that.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29I asked them to pose a bit like fashion models.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32They were afraid that I'd be making fun of them.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36But when they saw the photograph,
0:53:36 > 0:53:38they thought they looked beautiful.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40I think they look beautiful myself.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44And sexy.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48As well as producing new prints,
0:53:48 > 0:53:53Klein's determination to constantly revisit his work,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56has led him to paint the photographic contact sheets
0:53:56 > 0:53:58of some of his most iconic images.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02Using his paintbrush to remind us of the way the perfect picture
0:54:02 > 0:54:05was once selected in a pre-digital age.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10There's a William Klein aesthetic.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13It's a multi-disciplinary approach.
0:54:13 > 0:54:14It's exactly what you want to see.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17You do actually want to see an image-maker
0:54:17 > 0:54:19exploring different ways of making images.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25And at the Tate Modern exhibition, in one of the most dramatic rooms,
0:54:25 > 0:54:30these painted contacts are being displayed on a spectacular scale.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34So there's your famous picture of the boy with the gun.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38And you decide to take the two frames. Because that's the famous...
0:54:38 > 0:54:43Yes. Two frames because everybody knows this photograph, here.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45In showing two photographs,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48you can see these kids are posing for me.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50Laughing, actually.
0:54:51 > 0:54:56Among the painted contacts, is one of Klein's most famous images.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58That was quite controversial
0:54:58 > 0:55:02when you took that picture the first time, wasn't it?
0:55:02 > 0:55:03Yeah, yeah.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06Her smoking a cigarette like that.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Smoking a cigarette like that.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12For fashion, you had to have a cigarette holder and gloves.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18And this was published in all the Vogues except American Vogue.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21They didn't publish it in American Vogue because...?
0:55:21 > 0:55:25She is smoking like a sailor.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27Not elegant.
0:55:27 > 0:55:32- And was she supposedly modelling that hat?- Yeah...
0:55:32 > 0:55:34That was the idea.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37I was doing hat shots.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39What happened to her?
0:55:39 > 0:55:41She died. She had a cancer.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43What was her...
0:55:43 > 0:55:46Her name? Evelyn Tripp.
0:55:46 > 0:55:52You know, in those days, people didn't know the names of models.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56Models were not stars...with names.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58Today they're like movie stars.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06William continues to take pictures of the next generation of fashion stars.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08His imaginative eye
0:56:08 > 0:56:10is still highly prized as a way of getting noticed
0:56:10 > 0:56:13in today's imagine-saturated world.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17In recent years, he has been a regular contributor
0:56:17 > 0:56:20to the American fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22He has a way of showing fashion...
0:56:22 > 0:56:25It's almost because he doesn't care,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28that it produces something that is so extraordinary.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36At the opening night of the Tate Modern show,
0:56:36 > 0:56:39William plays the role of genial host,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42enjoying a bit of high-speed mingling.
0:56:44 > 0:56:49But, as ever, he's always camera-in-hand,
0:56:49 > 0:56:51documenting the moment.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53Now well into this 80s,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56William Klein is one of the last survivors of a generation
0:56:56 > 0:57:00who shaped the art of 20th century photography.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11And he shows no sign of giving up.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14He's got such a strength about him.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18You can't imagine getting on his wrong side.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21But at the same time you know he's a real softie.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24- You look handsome now. - You did a miracle.
0:57:24 > 0:57:25You look handsome.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28He's just...one of a kind.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34You got a good haircut.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36There are no rules in creativity.
0:57:36 > 0:57:38Klein recognised that from the word go.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41Take my picture.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44I think all photographers have got this streak of energy in them
0:57:44 > 0:57:47that other people don't seem to have.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50I'm up here. What are you photographing?
0:57:51 > 0:57:53OK, thank you.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59- On three. Ahh! Thank you.- You're welcome.
0:57:59 > 0:58:00William. Look at you.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02You...you...you're looking good, right?
0:58:02 > 0:58:04No, I don't look good.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08After a creative life spanning over 60 years,
0:58:08 > 0:58:13his passion for making images, remains as strong as ever.
0:58:13 > 0:58:17As does his determination to do things his way.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd