The boys are back in town …
Soho street life in the early 1980s is captured as a confusion of male energy in this classic 1980 shot, Shoes Polisher, Rocky II, etc, Piccadilly, by the great American experimental photographer William Klein. Signs shout about movie boxing hero Rocky, money, beer and cameras. In an era when this area of central London was infamous for the sex trade, only men pound Klein’s pavements, the women waiting in backstreet rooms.
Putting the boot in …
Typically for Klein’s street photography, it feels off-the-cuff. Yet for all its energetic chaos, this is a picture with a message, not least about power relations within urban life. It’s the guy getting his DMs shined by a cowering boot polisher who eyeballs us at the centre of the image.
Against the grain …
An untrained original, Klein pushed experimenting with his medium to the hilt, using chance, blur and graininess, over- and under-exposure, weird angles and closeups to capture the urban experience, its codes and libidinal currents.
Included in Shot in Soho, The Photographers’ Gallery, W1, to 9 February
