Urinals, New York
This provocative photograph of men standing before urinals in a public bathroom is a superb example of Klein's bold, graphic style and his attraction to taboo subjects. By violating traditional notions of propriety about where in society the camera should go, Klein helped inaugurate a new era of American photography. No longer content with pre-World War II objectivity, Klein and Robert Frank, among others, carried the medium from documentary expression to Beat memoir, from the seemingly orderly world of facts to the chaotic, intense, and often sensual realm of visual poetry.
Artwork Details
- Title: Urinals, New York
- Artist: William Klein (American, New York 1928–2022 Paris)
- Date: 1954
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 27.2 x 33.5 cm (10 11/16 x 13 3/16 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2002
- Object Number: 2002.351
- Rights and Reproduction: © William Klein
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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