Saul Leiter 1923 -2013 - American photographer and painter

Eugene Smith encouraged Leiter to work in photography and Leiter sold some of Smith’s prints to buy a Leica. With contemporary photographers Robert Frank and Diane Arbus they formed what was to be called the New York School of photography during the 1940s and 1950s. For twenty years, Leiter worked as a fashion photographer. His work was included in Edward Steichen’s exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1953. What Leiter is really known for is his early use of colour for Street Photography. Leiter used many different focal length lenses and was particularly keen on using telephoto lenses which was not typical of other Street and documentary photographers.

“I liked different lenses for different times. I am fond of the telephoto lens, as I am of the normal 50 mm lens. I had at one point a 150 mm lens and I was very fond it. I liked what it did. I experimented a lot. Sometimes I worked with a lens that I had when I might have preferred another lens. I think Picasso once said that he wanted to use green in a painting but since he didn't have it he used red. Perfection is not something I admire. [Laughs]. A touch of confusion is a desirable ingredient.”

http://photographyinterviews.blogspot.com/2009/04/saul-leiter-quiet-iconoclast-saul.html

He enjoyed experimentation and wasn’t averse to using a lens which might not have been his first choice for a particular scene. Most of his Street photography in the form of colour slides went unrecognised until he started making prints from the slides in the 1990s.

Leiter’s photography looks for the beauty in the most ordinary places. He is certainly into not into the grimy and gritty. While Salgado has sought beauty on the grand scale in black and white, Leiter has sought beauty in the mundane and in colour. What Leiter has really got to grips with is the beauty of things that so often are unnoticed, that we pay scant attention to. Some of the best photographers share this talent for spotting interesting shapes and colours in our every day life. We do not have to travel far to see this. For Leiter he photographed what he found interesting. He was not driven by some high minded philosophy or purpose. In explaining his approach to photography he tends to understate and is humble about his achievements and ambitions. Leiter recognises the significance of more determined and focused photographers, but just prefers a more laid back approach.

“In order to build a career and to be successful, one has to be determined. One has to be ambitious. I much prefer to drink coffee, listen to music and to paint when I feel like it… Maybe I was irresponsible. But part of the pleasure of being alive is that I didn’t take everything as seriously as one should.”

“I’ve never been overwhelmed with a desire to become famous. It’s not that I didn’t want to have my work appreciated, but for some reason — maybe it’s because my father disapproved of almost everything I did — in some secret place in my being was a desire to avoid success… My friend Henry [Wolf] once said that I had a talent for being indifferent to opportunities. He felt that I could have built more of a career, but instead I went home and drank coffee and looked out the window.”

https://time.com/3797042/a-casual-conversation-with-saul-leiter/

“I think Eugene is one of the great photographers in the history of photography. His way of telling a story in photography was unique. He was committed to using photography to make things better for others. Because of what he did in the story of the mid-wife a hospital was created. I am a different kind of photographer. Others will have to judge its value. Is it too light? Is it concerned with beauty? I understand it is admired by some people but not by everyone.”

(interview by David Gibson 2013 from In-Public

https://artpil.com/news/interview-with-saul-leiter/