Part 1: Introduction Research Task: Saul Leiter by John Cooper

john534123 — 2024-09-17 21:45:29 UTC

Originally from Pittsburgh, at 22, Saul Leiter left home & got on a train to New York where he photographed life on the streets for over 60 years (and mostly within a few blocks of his East 10th Street apartment). Never personally craving fame or attention, it wasn't until later on in life that his work was eventually recognised.

john534123 — 2024-09-17 21:50:04 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 21:51:30 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 21:58:20 UTC

"People are partially glimpsed in passing cars, or photographed through vertical spaces between buildings or hoardings. Viewed through smeared or steamed up windows, they sometimes seem like spectral silhouettes." - Sean O'Hagan (Guardian)

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:03:37 UTC

Leiter started taking photographs at the age of 16 when his mother gave him a detrola camera. But it was his love of art and in particular - abstact painting that led him to New York. His love for shape and colour soon found its way into his photography and by the early 1950s, he was using colour well before most other photographers, and was experimenting with the tonal possibilities of colour 2 decades before the likes of William Eggleston and Stephen Shore.

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:07:51 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:13:33 UTC

"He would use oblique angles or push the more human element of the image to the edges of the frame" - Tom Seymour (Wallpaper.com)

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:15:11 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:16:04 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:17:06 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:18:14 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:22:06 UTC

Consistent elements of Leiter's images - normally 1 or 2 (somtimes all) of the following can be found in his photographs:

deliberate isolation of a small part of the photograph
attention paid to the weather
an understanding of colours and how they fit together
the use of reflections and shooting through glass (often steamed up or clouded)

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:23:16 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:29:33 UTC

The first solo exhibition of his work was presented in 1993 by the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York of his black and white photos, but it wasn't until a decade later that the same gallery held the exhibition "Saul Leiter: Early Colour" - this was when his photography really started to get the attention it deserved. Leiter died in 2013 aged 89.

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:30:58 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:32:25 UTC

john534123 — 2024-09-17 22:34:41 UTC