The New York School is a name for a loose group of photographers who worked on the streets of New York from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. They did not form a club or sign a manifesto.
One story shows how they worked. In 1954, Alexander Liberman, the art director of Vogue, invited William Klein, who was living in Paris, back to New York as his assistant. Vogue cancelled the job. Liberman promised Klein a book instead.
Klein spent eight months on the streets of the city. He did not hide what other photographers saw as mistakes, such as blur. No American publisher wanted the result. Therefore the book came out in Paris in 1956, with Éditions du Seuil, as Life Is Good & Good for You in New York.
The name came later, from Jane Livingston's book The New York School: Photographs 1936–1963. It brings together sixteen photographers.
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