Urinals, New York

William Klein

1954 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

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.

Artist: William Klein
Date: 1954
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Department: Photographs
Credit line: Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2002

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