“His mastery of colour is displayed in unconventional cityscapes in which reflections, transparency, complex framing and mirroring effects are married to a very personal printing style, creating a unique kind of urban view.”
- Thames & Hudson
- ‘Early Color’, 2008
Born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1923, Saul Leiter is an exceptionally talented image maker who’s success has only come in recent years. His style is defined by his urban street scenes of mostly Paris and New York in the 40s and 50s in which he uses ‘inexpensive colour film, past it’s expiration date.’ His first European colour retrospective was held in the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris, 2008.
Saul Leiter, Phone call, 1957, Chromogenic print
Taxi, 1957
“Mr Leiter was a photographer less of people than of perception itself. His painter’s instincts served him well in his emphasis, spacial ambiguity and a lush, carefully calibrated palette [...] Leiter captured the passing illusions of everyday life with a precision that might almost seem scientific if it weren’t so poetically resonant and visually layered.”
- Roberta Smith, Art Critic, 2005
Lanesville, 1958
Saul Leiter, ’463′ (1956)
In a recent interview with Brigitte Woischnik and his assistent Margit Erb in the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg in 2012, Leiter gives an interesting insight into his photography processes and describes how “photography allows you to observe things that would have been often overlooked.”
He also goes on to say that one of the benefits of photography is that “the world becomes a much richer, juicier, visual place [...] sometimes it’s unbearable”
For the full video interview visit the Vimeo Website.
Snow, 1957
Other interesting interviews & reviews:
A Casual Conversation with Saul Leiter – Time Lightbox
Lens Culture: Saul Leiter 1950s-60s color and black & white.
Saul Leiter, The Quiet Iconoclast, Photographers Speak
Related articles
- Saul Leiter Revisited – In No Great Hurry (mymindfuel.wordpress.com)
- Exhibition: ‘Saul Leiter’ at Kunst Haus Wien, Vienna (artblart.com)
