Saul Leiter

I came across Saul Leiter via a Twitter connection and ended up watching a wonderful documentary called In No Great Hurry about him.  Apart from the fact that Saul Leiter comes across as a genuinely remarkable and kind person, I absolutely fell in love with his photography.

Saul Leiter was the son of a rabbi and was expected to follow the same path but he abandoned his studies and went to New York at the age of 24 to pursue art.  He was a painter who started using a Leica after being encouraged, and eventually became a fashion photographer.  He became part of what is known as the New York School and was working at the same time as other well known photographers in New York from that era, such as Diane Arbus (he took a portrait of her) and Robert Frank.  He used colour film when it was unusual to do so and his colour street photography is incredibly distinctive and beautiful.

I love his street photography and now have a copy of his book, Early Colour.  You can really see the knowledge he gained as a painter in his photographs and I think his work might be timeless for that reason.  He mediates what he sees and transforms seemingly simple quotidian scenes into something very beautiful.  He is not as well known as some of the other big names from that time but that is changing and I think his work has a quality that will endure.  His style is incredibly expressive and I wonder if a lot of people are emulating (perhaps without realising) what he used to do on various online platforms today.

The colour prints I have looked at explore colour, shapes, reflections and blurred scenes, all of which he uses to create small masterpieces that to my eye will be worth looking at for many, many years going forward.  Saul Leiter was born in 1923 and died in 2013.  Anyone interested should certainly see the film I mention at the top.  It's beautifully made and he is wonderful to listen to.  His lack of grandiosity, his low key modesty, his  kindness and the appreciation of his all the good as well as all the sadness from life is wonderful to witness.

Wikipedia
Guardian