Redefining Romance: Saul Leiter's Presence in Perfect Moment At the Perfect Time

“It is not where it is or what it is that matters, but how you see it.”

A trailblazer of modern photography, Saul Leiter’s experiments with colour-film that injected the vibrancy of the streets of New York into his photos carved him out as a pioneer in the development of the medium. The fluidity of his work draws on his training as a painter, with the expressionist quality of his paintings seeping into his photography, capturing shadows and shapes to create abstract images.

Despite Leiter’s prolific career, it is the first time in the UK a retrospective of his work will be presented by The Photographer’s Gallery. After abandoning his theological studies to move to New York at the age of 23, he began to pursue his love of painting and later began to embrace his talent for photography. Leiter grew increasingly experimental in his work, as seen through the varying perspectives in his work and his initial use of Kodachrome colour slide film. Despite the clearly innovative nature of Leiter’s work, he was criticised in the art world for turning his back against the trend for monochrome. The retrospective illustrates Leiter’s hazy metropolis, the dream-like compositions and a blur of elements capture each figure covertly in each scene. The, at times, murky palette, reminiscent of the post-war era, is brought to life with flashes of a red umbrella or the florescent glow of city lights.

The exhibition’s curators, Ingo Taubhorn and Brigitte Woishnik, present the mastery of Leiter with mesmerising effect. The distinctive reflective surfaces featured heavily in Leiter’s work that depict moments of poetic stillness within bustling city life, are placed alongside seductive nudes that ooze a sense of modernism with the acid green hues.

Although Leiter’s photography career took him into the world of high fashion, shooting magazine spreads for the likes of Vogue and Esquire, it is clear that his real passion lay in the abstract. The deliberately distorted compositions instantly transport you onto the streets of New York as you witness the character and charm of all the city’s hidden nooks and crannies. The whimsical style that is Leiter at his best is displayed here in all its glory, firmly positioning his work as a hugely influential part of the growth of colour photography.

Saul Leiter: A Restrospective runs at The Photographers Gallery until April 3rd, 2016 http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/saul-leiter-2

Jessica Rayner