I look into the camera and take pictures. So guided by his instinct he found that beauty of life in the corner of the street, in his neighborhood: “I don’t have a philosophy. In an era not necessarily very radiant, where most of images were about misery and wretchedness, Leiter saw that the search for beauty was not highly popular in that period. Jean Shrimpton, 1966 for Vogue - He started make a living from his fashion work Five years later, Leiter brought his photographs to the gallery, Greenberg testifies: “You literally had to blow dust off of them, they’d been sitting in a box for 50 years–one beautiful picture after another.” This meeting would lead to exhibitions and 3 books, from which Early Color had a great success. It was only in 1993 that the gallerist Howard Greenberg noticed his work in black and white at an exhibition. I think that mysterious things happen in familiar places.” I liked color even though many photographers looked down on color or felt it was superficial or shallow.”

But Saul Leiter -well before William Eggleston-, didn’t listen the trends: “One day I bought a roll of color film and I took pictures. In the 50’s, the ‘street photography’ in New York is booming, while the color is a medium rejected by the world of art since it was strongly associated with images of advertising. Saul Leiter in his studio, between paintings and photographs - © In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Leiter His first assistant, Tony Cenicola said “he was totally inept at anything other than art”. Leiter then made a living of fashion and advertising photography working for various magazines, and continued his personal research at a side. His meeting with abstract-expressionist painter Richard Pousette-Daer will be decisive in the creation of his identity. His sensibility and alternative way of seeing was revealed to the public only in the late 90’s, before he left us in 2013, when he finally had the great recognition he deserved.īorn of a rabbi father in Pittsburgh, 1923, Saul Leiter abandoned his theological studies for New York to indulge exclusively to painting and photography. His compositions using reflections, windows, fog, negative spaces have come to defy all the rules at the time. Here is a humble man never leaded by fame. Saul Leiter’s abstract paintings gave his photography a distinctive approach, with his pastel tones and large color areas, he is a pioneer of color.

Colors saul leiter