WILLIAM KLEIN: IN AND OUT OF FASHION

New York City, NY: Random House, 1994. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. New York City, NY: Random House, 1994. Hardcover. Fine/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 254 pages. Landmark collection of fashion and lifestyle photographs. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by William Klein: Oversize-volume format. The book weighs 5 pounds. Glossy pictorial hard boards with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by William Klein. Afterword by Martin Harrison. Stunning endpapers. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper by Amilcare Pizzi in Milan, Italy to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents William Klein's "In And Out of Fashion". The truly astonishing range of the photographer's fashion and lifestyle work. Complemented and juxtaposed with his unsurpassable street photography. The creator of a style that has been extremely influential just as it has remained completely original, William Klein's approach to fashion is more subdued, but still retains his trademark "in-your-face" aggressiveness, wit, and panache, in stark contrast to the polished, clean, and Minimalist "look" perfected and favored by the School of the great Alexey Brodovitch and his disciples, most notably Avedon. William Klein began his career as a graphic designer, which is why his books are beautifully and meticulously produced, and more important, it provided the basis for his raw, powerful, and obtrusive photographic style. Every graphic designer wants his work not just to be noticed, but to invade your consciousness and implant itself there (this is why "art directors" of advertising agencies are graphic designers, and Klein himself worked in advertising intermittently). Klein inaugurated a revolution in photography by breaking with the medium's taboos and traditions. He developed a radically new way to take pictures, perfecting his graphic design-based style by incorporating elements of black humor, social criticism, satire, reportage, cinema, literature, and poetry, thereby creating the unique look that has since been so widely copied by other artists, graphic designers, and photographers (without credit being given to its creator) it is now part of our collective photographic vocabulary. There is no modern, "cutting-edge" magazine in the world that does not have an unmistakable trace of Klein's style. The work of such photographers as Max Vadukul, Ellen von Unwerth, Peter Lindbergh, David Sims, and Mario Testino, to name just a few, owes an immense debt to William Klein's ground-breaking oeuvre. An absolute "must-have" title for William Klein collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in white pen-marker on the black title page by William Klein. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. The signature stands out against the page's predominantly black background. This title is a great photography book. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare signed copy thus. 91 duotone, 74 color plates. William Klein's "Life Is Good And Good For You In New York: Trance Witness Revels " was selected as one of the greatest photography books in "The Photobook". One of the greatest artist/photographers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER WILLIAM KLEIN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0679434240.