“ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PHOTOGRAPHERS OF HIS GENERATION”

KLEIN, William. Retrospective. (Paris): Marval / (Centre National d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, 2005). Folio, original stiff red photographic wrappers. $2700.

First edition, French issue, published coincident with a 2005-06 “Retrospective Exhibition” of Klein’s work at the Georges Pompidou Centre, warmly inscribed by Klein on the title page to close friend, Paris-based photojournalist Peter Turnley, “To Peter, Retrospective No 45,… with toute mon amitié, William Klein,” featuring hundreds of finely screened, full-bleed images-in color and black-and-white-highlighting Klein’s career.

William Klein rewrote the history of American photography with the publication of his "magnum magnum opus… New York is a quintessential monument to the American cultural scene of the 1950s" (Parr & Badger I:235-6). As reflected here in this first edition of Retrospective, published to accompany a 2005-2006 exhibit at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, Klein has continued to reinvent the medium ever since, bringing his trademark, improvisational approach to both film and still photography, with restless, "raw, kinetic and utterly original photographs" (Roth, 140) that have established him as "one of the most important photographers of his generation" (New York Times). With prefaces in French by Bruno Racine, Alfred Pacquement and William Klein. Issued without dust jacket, in wrappers only. First edition, French issue; published same year in Spain and Italy. Scarce association copy inscribed by Klein to close friend Peter Turnley, award-winning photographer for Newsweek and contributing editor for Harper's Magazine who has covered "almost every important international news event of the last 15 years" (New York Times).

A fine association copy.