May, 6th, 2012

Lille | William Klein

EXHIBITION
William Klein
Rome 1956-1960

| Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini and Federico Fellini (L to R) on the set of ‘Il Generale Della Rovere’ (Rossellini, 1958). 1957 © William Klein, Courtesy Maison de la Photo Lille. |

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In a northern French daily newspaper, the following comment was recently published: “Lens has the Louvre, Metz has Beaubourg, and tomorrow, Lille will have the Maison Européenne de la Photographie". Reality is a bit different, less exotic, more realistic. On April 13, 2012, Martine Aubry, the Mayor of Lille, and Catherine Cullen, a Culture Counselor, Jean-Luc Monterosso, director of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie and Olivier Spillebout, director of the Maison de la Photographie signed an agreement allowing the two institutions to formalize an exhibition partnership for the upcoming two years. A cultural expansion allowing the Maison de la Photo of Lille to become a “Lille MEP” twice a year. The first joint rendez-vous features William Klein with “Klein and Rome”, pictures from 1956-1960 presented through May 30th.

The exhibition, produced by “Contrasto” in Italy, with Alessandra Mauro as curator, presents large format enlargements of his vision of Rome in the 1950’s. It was Fellini who asked Klein to come work as an assistant director in Rome after seeing his 1956 book about New York. As filming was endless, Klein spent his days taking pictures of the city. The exhibition prints unfortunately don’t reveal the photographer’s original intention for this series. They are gray and bland whereas what distinguished his work during these years (New York, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo) were “raw, grainy and contrasted” images.

Sophie Loren once said about this time period “Klein had eyes as sharp as knives. He was unforgiving and extravagant but never mean – he was tender, funny, and violent – and I am sure, truly in love with wild Rome.”

Bernard Perrine

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Rome + Klein
Photographies 1956-1960
Through May 30, 2012

Maison de la Photographie
18, rue Frémy
Lille
France
+33 (0)3 20 05 29 29
Monday.Friday | 10am.6pm

www.maisonphoto.com
www.mep-fr.org