Saul Leiter was an American artist and early pioneer of color photography, considered one of the finest street photographers of all time. With distinctive imagery suffused with painterly qualities, he is often grouped with other photographers of the New York School such as Robert Frank, 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 in Pittsburgh, Leiter moved to New York in 1946 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. Today, his work is included in the collections of MoMA; MFA, Houston; Art Institute of Chicago; V&A London; National Gallery of Australia; and other prestigious public and private collections globally.
