Saul Leiter

(American, 1923–2013)

Saul Leiter was an American artist and early pioneer of color photography. With distinctive imagery suffused with painterly qualities, he is often grouped with other photographers of the New York School such as Richard Avedon, Weegee, and Diane Arbus. His work, however, departs dramatically with that group in regard to his subject matter—an oblique mélange of New York’s streets, architecture, and inhabitants. “A window covered with raindrops interests me more than a photograph of a famous person,” the artist said. Born on December 3, 1923 in Pittsburgh, PA, Leiter left Jewish theological study at 23 and moved to New York to pursue painting. Largely self-taught, Leiter’s colleague Richard Pousett-Dart encouraged him to try his hand at photography, leading to a lifelong career spent documenting his East Village neighborhood. He chose to shoot in color in the 1940s, well before other art photographers adopted the medium. In 2006, Steidl Verlag published Saul Leiter: Early Color which conveyed the breadth of Leiter’s color work in a book for the first time. The artist died on November 26, 2013 in New York, NY at the age of 89. in 2014 Margit Erb founded the Saul Leiter Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving the art and legacy of the artist. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.