Simone Daillencourt and Nina Devos model for Italian designer Roberto Capucci in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna in 1960. Photograph: William Klein |
The big picture: William Klein captures geometric elegance in Rome
The photographer, who died last week, balances monochrome cool and traffic chaos in this striking image of two Vogue models
Tim Adams
Sunday 18 September 2022
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This picture was taken while he was based in Rome. The models Simone Daillencourt and Nina Devos – he liked the serendipity of their forenames – were modelling the new geometries of Italian fashion’s young star Roberto Capucci. Klein invited Nina and Simone to walk to and fro on the zebra crossing in the Piazza di Spagna. He then waited with his telephoto lens and elevated perspective for the right mix of monochrome cool and traffic chaos that he wanted.
Klein had first come to Rome four years earlier at the invitation of Federico Fellini, whom he had met in Paris. Klein had presented the film director with his New York book, only to discover he already had a copy at his bedside. Fellini asked Klein to come to the eternal city to work as an assistant on his new film Nights of Cabiria. When filming was delayed, Klein took the opportunity to wander the streets and create another landmark book of pictures of city and people, including one or two of his Vogue pictures. He later satirised the fashion industry in a pioneering mockumentary, Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?. He always liked to keep a casual distance from the self-importance of that world. After his shoots for Vogue he would, he recalled, go home and his wife would ask: “What is the fashion like for this season?” He would always say: “I have no idea.”
THE GUARDIAN
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