Thus began his foray into fashion photography, as well as his well-known photographic essays on various cities. Subsequently, Vogue published his photographs of Dutch barns, reminiscent of Mondrian, soon after their meeting.
In 1954, Alexander Liberman-then the art director of American Vogue-asked to meet with Klein after seeing his kinetic sculptures in the Paris group show, Le Salon des Réalitiés Nouvelles. It was the experience of documenting these panels in motion that lead him to reconsider photography. They began to collaborate when Mangiarotti asked Klein to recreate once of his abstract paintings on the rotating room dividers of a Milanese apartment-his first commissioned work. After studying with the French artist Fernand Léger, Klein’s early career breaks came from two exhibitions in Milan, where he was discovered by the architect Angelo Mangiarotti. At the time, his focus was abstract painting and sculpture. After relocating to Paris in 1948, he continued his studies at the Sorbonne with the assistance of the G.I. Army and was stationed in Germany, where he won his first camera in a poker game.
After graduating early from high school, he began studying sociology at the City College of New York.
William Klein (b.1928-2022) was born in New York City.
