Beyond the Frame 77/
This edition is unashamedly all about New York City and, specifically, the photographic work of Saul Leiter, often described as “a pioneer of colour photography”.
Staten Island Ferry
A blustery, overcast day in New York City. On the return journey to Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry, this man was deep in thought, looking out across the harbour.
With Liberty standing proudly in the background – that small flash of reassuring green against the monochrome sky and city skyline – it seemed like a scene that conveyed more than what was immediately apparent.
New York has, of course, been photographed endlessly. Yet it still offers up these small, personal vignettes. It’s this never-ending carnival of colour — the flashes of light, the momentary gestures — that have captivated so many photographers.
Spending time with Saul Leiter’s work this week, and seeing the city again through his eyes, feels like slipping into a quieter register of New York life.
Saul Leiter
One cannot photograph in New York City without soon becoming aware of the work of Saul Leiter.
Leiter’s photographs, particularly those of his home city, are often abstract and painterly. They are intimate, thoughtful observations that could perhaps only be made by a photographer attuned to the city’s beats and rhythms.
His images often seem to be brief glimpses of details – a sunlit hand in a taxi cab window, a red coat reflected in a shop window display, snow-swept pedestrians in the gap beneath a canopy – any one of a million blinked details that make up a day in the city.
Perhaps it’s their informality, their lack of over-thought composition which make Leiter’s images so enduring. Even if we’ve never visited New York, he makes the city familiar through his ability to reveal the beauty in the everyday.
You can see more of Saul Leiter’s colour images on the Saul Leiter Foundation website.
You will also doubtless appreciate his black and white photographs and some examples of his paintings, which he described as his “first love”.
“Mr. Leiter’s photographs relay what all New Yorkers know about their roaring, daunting home: that life in the city is filled with stolen glimpses and fleeting, quietly personal and often gorgeous moments.”
– Library of Babel
Beyond the Frame Recommendations
Articles, documentaries, exhibitions, podcasts and more.
▶︎ Watch
Saul Leiter – In No Great Hurry
A documentary by British filmmaker Thomas Leach, filmed in Saul Leiter’s home in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The full documentary can be seen on The Darkroom Rumour.
▶︎ Watch
Saul Leiter – A retrospective lecture
A fascinating talk by Margit Erb, founder and director of the Saul Leiter Foundation, which reveals much about Leiter’s life and work, including the story of how Thomas Leach came to make the documentary film (above).
◘ Read
In 2022, Margit Erb and Michael Parillo of the Saul Leiter Foundation published a collection of Saul Leiter’s previously unseen work, with additional text describing how Leiter organised his archive, and how the collection is being restored and catalogued for posterity.
“Looking through The Unseen Saul Leiter is very much like listening to newly discovered studio tapes from the Beatles, or discovering Cezanne had an extra storage room.”
– From Read Frames
The Unseen Saul Leiter is available on Amazon in the US and Bookshop.org in Europe.
◉ Listen
On Saul Leiter: A Subtle Complexity
For readers who also appreciate a good podcast, Margit Erb and Michael Parillo are interviewed about their work with the Saul Leiter Foundation on the Right Eye Dominant podcast.
✤ Create
A series of creative prompts, inspired by Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, and designed with photographers in mind.
Read more about the concept and learn how to use my Oblique Strategies for Photographers.
And finally…
When this edition reaches your screen, I shall be somewhere in Manhattan, camera in hand, doing my best to channel some of Saul Leiter’s acute observation into my own photographs.
Whatever you’re planning, I hope it brings you just as much pleasure and fulfilment.
Until next time, go well.
Directory: Beyond the Frame newsletter archive.
Resources: Recommended books, films, gear, media etc.
Beyond the Frame 76/
This edition is all about the portrait, from the streets of Bangladesh to the Portrait of Britain award shortlist.
I have one of his books. Different perspective and certainly a pioneer in the genre.