Saul Leiter (1923-2013) was a master of the smaller emotive fragments of everyday life, capturing the beauty in often unnoticed moments (https://www.saulleiterfoundation.org).
I’ve now been studying this book for some weeks now, after being given it as a present (https://www.waterstones.com/book/forever-saul-leiter/saul-leiter/9780500296431). What becomes very striking about Leiter’s work from the beginning is his painterly understanding of light, colour, texture and, in particular, negative space; no surprise then that Leiter was also a painter.
Leiter’s ability to see the beautiful smaller, fragmented elements of everyday life that could so easily be missed is very strong. A quote from Leiter in this book, “I was hoping to be forgotten. I aspired to be unimportant.”, gives an indication of a more observant and patient approach to photography with an attention to detail.
So many of his photos are capturing an impression of a momentary emotion, with really strong use of negative space and structural elements, such as, street furniture, reflections and blurring, that draw you to the main focus.
What is also interesting in this book is the chapter on Leiter’s ‘snippets’, where he printed photos of friends and partners onto business-sized cards and tore them into smaller fragments that had a much more textural feel. This clearly resonates with his street work, being observant for the same fragmented and textural elements.
Leiter is often known for his strong use of colour at a time when it was considered more for commercial rather than artistic work. Note here, his strong colour street work in mid-twentieth century New York. Contrastingly, I really enjoyed the lesser-known photos in this book, particularly the black and white work, portraits and street observations alike. His ability to seek out the smaller, everyday fragmented moments work across both colour and black and white.
In this book, there is also a collection of photos and contact sheets of his partner and muse, Soames Bantry, who was a fashion model. This shows a much more intimate side to Leiter’s work, depicting emotive moments of joy and sadness with less abstraction than his street observations.
Leiter’s street work was only discovered publicly when in his eighties and I can see parallels here with Vivian Maier’s (https://www.vivianmaier.com) deeply personal approach to photography that avoided the need for publicity; the enjoyment appeared to be in the act of observing and taking the photo, not in showing them.
For me, it is this highly personal, observant and low-profile approach to photography that enabled Leiter to produce such a powerful body of work. This book gives a good understanding of the extent of that work and largely leaving the images to speak for themselves.
The quotation from Leiter on the fly of this book, aptly sums up his approach, “Photographs are often treated as important moments, but really they are little fragments and souvenirs of an unfinished world.”.
