Signed; William Klein - Life is good & good for you in New York - 1956

Welcome to this special sale of books or authors listed in the book Photobook by Parr & Badger. All are signed copies. William Klein's edition of New York is listed in The Photobook by Parr & Badger, vol. I p. 243, as well as in Auer 802 photobooks from the M. + M. Auer collection p. 365, The Open Book by the Hasselblad Center p. 165-166, Andrew Roth, The Book of 801 Books, seminal photographic books of the Twentieth Century p. 140 to 143.

Rare and beautiful copy, dedicated and signed by William Klein (there is only one other signed copy available in the United States for €7,000, with minor defects). Complete with dust jacket and a separate small booklet of 16 pages with captions of the photographs (booklet).

To view the photographic series in full screen, double-click on a photograph, then you can return to the standard display at any time.

This cult book, which profoundly influenced many photographers and marked a true revolution in photographic practice and photographic book publishing, was published in 1956 in Paris. It is the first volume of the Petite Planète collection directed by Chris Marker at Editions du Seuil. William Klein wanted his photographs to have the energy and audacity of a pamphlet and tried to make the image 'as vulgar and brutal as the News,' referring to the Daily News of New York, the tabloid newspaper of his childhood. A Jewish and poor child from a tough neighborhood terrorized by gangs (hence the presence of kids with revolvers in his images), he needed to escape New York as soon as the opportunity arose, with World War II and the post-war period in Paris. William Klein was also seeking an art form in which daring could be creative, and he declared that he would do his best to 'brutalize the material' and 'break all the rules' of classical photography, as exemplified by the most blurry and unreadable photograph in the book, which was taken at a social ball.

Returning to New York in the 1950s, he wanted his photographs to reveal the brutality of life in the city, and the full title of this book, 'Life is good and Good in New York: Trance Whitness revels,' is a play on words—meaning 'Life is good for you in New York: a witness in trance delights.' In English, it also functions as a pun ('a providential witness manifests itself,' a common phrase in sensationalist press). This title is therefore an antiphrase, where irony is used in a sense opposite to its true meaning. However, the book also contains photographs of strange beauty... (According to The New History of Photography, edited by Michel Frizot, pp. 644-645).

Copy in excellent overall condition accompanied by the very rare booklet. The jacket has a slight missing piece at the top of the spine and a tear without missing part on the back face, but these are common flaws found in most available copies (see photo). The entire item is now protected by a transparent mylar cover.

Protected shipment with reinforced packaging and guaranteed international postal tracking. For multiple purchases, combined shipping is possible with a refund of any excess postal fees paid via Paypal.