“In 1956, William Klein turned the photographic conventions of his day upside- down with his book Life is Good & Good for You in New York – Trance Witness Reveals. He revealed a society that didn't match America's image of itself. The controversial book was revolutionary, its photography as well as its subject matter, and over the years it's never lost its power. Between 1956 and 1964, in a period of eight years, William Klein produced four city books that completely unsettled the still-young photographic traditions. are filled with grainy, brusque photos which depict the four cities in a way that had never been seen before. His images of life in these cities have a ruthless realism and at the same time visually reverberate the psychological, social and economic mood of that time. These books, and New York in particular, has had an unprecedented influence on subsequent generations of photographers and designers of photo books.” Foam Magazine

Biography
Birol Üzmez, who reflected the lives of mine workers in his photographs in Zonguldak where he lived for long years, was born in Akcakoca in August 20, 1960. In 1984, he began to take interest in the artistic view of his father's profession, who was also a photographer and became a member of the Association of Photograph and Cinema Amateurs in Istanbul (IFSAK) in 1986. In 1985 together with Fahri Bozbaş and Ertuğrul Ünal, he set an exhibition named "Once Upon a Time Zonguldak” using the photos collected from the archives of Nazim Baysal, who was one of the first photographers in Zonguldak. Following to the exhibition "Window" which he arranged together with Uğur Kasırga in 1986, he set two other joint-exhibitions, "Loneliness" with Ayhan Ülkü and "Life of a Miner" with İbrahim Akyürek. He worked as a member of TUSAK Board in 1987-1988. Founding the Zonguldak Photographers Group with his six friends in 1986, he continued to work for the development of photograph art in Zonguldak. He set four Zonguldak Photograph Days with that group. He revealed the photos in the archives of the architect Süreyya Aytaç. He worked for Cumhuriyet Newspaper 1990-1993 as a free reporting photographer and documented the strike in 1990 and the firedamp disaster in 1992. He took place in the formation of the "Documentary Photography Group" composed of İbrahim Akyürek, Şirin Küçüktabak, Sevil Üzrek, Faruk Akbaş ve Celal Deniz.Till 2012 he made many projects and exhibitions. Today, he carries on working freely as a member of Simurg Photos and Ifod. And he is supporting National Geographic Turkey.