On 12 January I attended the OCA study visit to the
Klein/Moriyama exhibition at the Tate.
In preparation for the visit I watched the BBC’s Imagine
programme – The Many of Lives of William Klein which I recorded before
Christmas. I also watched the Tate video
on Daido Moriyama. I relied on the
internet for further research and viewing of images.
From my first impressions of their work I feel I had a
tendency towards Klein finding his work personally more interesting and
possibly familiar. Moriyama’s work seemed
to present some kind of barrier or distance and I found it hard to digest his
images finding them dark and often impenetrable. One of the first questions I
asked myself was why a joint exhibition?
Moriyama was influenced by the work of Klein would be the
most obvious answer to that question but was that it? Their work on first glance may seem similar –
black and white images of life on city streets – but on closer inspection they
are very different.
The fact that both worked in each others’ cities would
perhaps be a stronger parallel. Although Moriyama’s New York is a very
different city to the one we see in Life
is good and good for you in New York.
Likewise can be said for Klein’s Tokyo.
The exhibition begins with Klein’s work, more specifically
his film Broadway by Light, where we
are introduced to the city’s gaudy neon signs – a forerunner of pop art. We see Klein the artist as he was more than
simply one of the greatest photographers to come out of the US as this
exhibition shows us.
Rooms 2 and 3 display the images that were to make up Klein’s
first book – a photo diary of New York – an idea which would lead to further
diaries of Rome, Tokyo and Moscow. After
living in Paris he returned to New York to work as a fashion photographer. During this time he began work on his photo
diary where he saw the city – his home town – from the eyes of an
outsider. The result is a collection of
candid shots of life in New York in the 50s.
I found Klein’s use of a wide angle lens very
interesting. In all his images the
viewer feels part of what is happening as the photographer is part of the
action. It is very different from Henri
Cartier-Bresson the man who inspired Klein.
My own personal experiments with street photography have usually
involved the use of a medium to telephoto lens which introduces a distance in
the image. I feel that moving forward I
would like to experiment more with a wide angle lens in the hope of injecting
some energy into my street work.
I also find the interaction with the subjects in his images. It is clear that he is not being
conspicuous. They are very much aware of
his presence. However, true street
photographers would argue that the essence of this genre is to capture life on
the street without interacting with the subjects. This interaction can lead to a more posed
shot and a subject who is aware of the camera behaving differently. However, I feel the interaction and awareness
of the photographer in Klein’s work displays an intimate moment that might have
been lost otherwise.
Rooms 4 and 5 look at Klein’s earlier work as an abstract
painter and provide a necessary background if you are attempting to discover
where he is coming from. I feel that
this background as a painter and an abstract painter led to Klein’s experiments
with his images in Contacts. In this
series he experimented with blowing up his contact sheets and using a red
pencil/enamel paint he shows the chosen image.
Again we see his work moving into the pop art world.
If Klein’s exhibition is wide and varied in size and subject
matter with large prints and film, Moriyama’s introduction is almost
understated. I feel that is it a
disservice to the artist that his work is presented after Klein’s in the
exhibition. Klein’s work has stimulated
all the senses and finishes with the bright colourful Contact images. When entering Moriyama’s exhibition the
images are small and black and white and I couldn’t help feel it was a bit of
an anti-climax.
I feel that also due to the sheer volume of work displayed
in Klein’s rooms the exhibition goer is probably suffering from fatigue and
information overload by the time they come to view Moriyama’s work. I know I was and from talking to other people
on the study visit many of them had already been before or were planning to go
again.
As Moriyama works with the intentions of publishing his
images in books I feel that this has an impact on the images exhibited. They are small (possibly to replicate the
experience of viewing a book) and difficult to adapt to after Klein’s work.
Moriyama’s work in contrast to Klein’s is very dark and
sinister. The high contrast black and
white and graininess of his images makes for hard viewing and demands a lot of
the viewer. They are not pretty but then
they don’t have to be, but they do portray Tokyo as a very dark, unwelcoming
place.
Where Klein’s New York is vibrant and full of energy
Moriyama’s New York is seen from the view of a cultural outsider. His streets are bare and his people do not
have the energy and intimacy we see in Klein’s work. I feel that they are images resulting from an
outsider looking in who has not connected with his subjects or the place. There is a sense of loneliness and not belonging. This sense of loneliness and not belonging is
how I feel about Moriyama’s work myself.
It is a world that is culturally very different to ours. It is unfamiliar. It makes me feel uneasy.
I feel the reasons why I prefer the work of Klein can be
summarised as follows:
- The order in which they are presented tends to
favour Klein as does the variety of work presented.
- The cultural language of Moriyama’s work is a
challenge. It is unfamiliar
territory. It presents a barrier that I
found hard to get over.
- There is humour in Klein’s work that I don’t
feel there is in Moriyama’s
- In the film on Klein you can associate more with
him
- More subjects in Klein’s work – a more diverse
range.
Some of the parallels in their work
- Both worked in the city, but the city meant
different things to them. Moriyama in
his film says that he can’t make photographs without a city.
- Post production work and the re-working of old
images can be seen in Moriyama’s dog image and Klein’s Contacts
- Both willing to push the limits of photography
and introduce other ways of making the final image.
For me, Klein will have more of
an impact on my work. I will as I have
mentioned earlier experiment with a wide angle lens. However, I will also look at shooting on the
streets with a compact camera as Moriyama does.
The exhibition has given me
plenty of food for thought in relation to black and white versus colour, post
production, street photography versus posed shots and presenting your work at
an exhibition.
