Thank you for this wonderful post on Saul Leiter, and for including the Jim Rhem piece "The Artist and The Rabbi's Son."
In addition to being a rabbi's son, Saul Leiter was also a rabbi's brother: Rabbi David Leiter. I take great delight in mentioning that his brother David was my rabbi when I was growing up, and was the rabbi who bar mitzvahed me.
Andy, if you could add a section on Saul Leiter's work in Black and White to your article it would be perfect. As far as I know two books got released covering his work in B&W
The latter was done in B&W because he didn't want to have the images developed by a lab for the lab staff to see them and he was able to develop B&W only at home. 'In My Room' is a reference in intimate and nude photography IMO, really not a big fan of this genre in general but those images are different. The book was successful, there is a 2nd edition that was published in 2019.
Wonderful Andy, thanks for putting this together. One of the great photographers of our time IMO. Might be interested in the following, this is from his first retrospective at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany in 2012
Some years ago, I wrote an essay for my blog called “Color Before Color,” in which I discuss the recent - at that time - discovery of the color work of Leiter and Herzog. And the article also touches on the beginnings of color in fine art photography. In the article, I clearly favor Herzog, but I’d probably give Leiter a bit more credit were I writing it today. Hope you’ll read. http://www.brianrose.com/blog/2014/01/new-yorkcolor-before-color/
I have seen the give away book and it’s wonderful. Leiter is one of my muses for my pursuit of color ideas. There are many but he is one who challenges, invites, me to see the extraordinary in the mundane.
Leiter is by far my favorite photographer. I now have 8 or 9 books of his photography and I was in awe when the latest book was published. Color slides are amazing and it would be great if an exhibit was held with his slides like the Gary Winogrand exhibit of his slides. Thanks for all of these audio and video clips
There are very good links contained in your post, thank you for them. I was very impressed at the connection one of the you tubers made about how Painting informs photography and vice versa, as in the photo he shared by Edgar Degas and I must say that viewing that image changed my life! And yes, beauty is important in our lives.
Thank you soooo much for this wonderful post, truly enjoyed it! Great story and details, loved the videos and the participants memories and recollections...Brilliant!!
Andy, I also wanted to add this book by a friend and colleague, Yumiko Izu called Saul Leiter: In Stillness. https://yumikoizu.com/product/yumiko-izu-saul-leiter-in-stillness/
Thanks - great read.
Like this quote by Leiter: "I happen to believe in the beauty of simple things. I believe that the most uninteresting thing can be very interesting."
More quotes here: https://photoquotes.com/author/saul-leiter
Thank you for this wonderful post on Saul Leiter, and for including the Jim Rhem piece "The Artist and The Rabbi's Son."
In addition to being a rabbi's son, Saul Leiter was also a rabbi's brother: Rabbi David Leiter. I take great delight in mentioning that his brother David was my rabbi when I was growing up, and was the rabbi who bar mitzvahed me.
Andy, if you could add a section on Saul Leiter's work in Black and White to your article it would be perfect. As far as I know two books got released covering his work in B&W
- Early Black and White by Steidl, Germany https://steidl.de/Books/Early-Black-and-White-2350525455.html?SID=FRpomeo9a39c
- In My Room, also Steidl https://steidl.de/Books/In-My-Room-0811234546.html
The latter was done in B&W because he didn't want to have the images developed by a lab for the lab staff to see them and he was able to develop B&W only at home. 'In My Room' is a reference in intimate and nude photography IMO, really not a big fan of this genre in general but those images are different. The book was successful, there is a 2nd edition that was published in 2019.
There is also an interesting article by James Estrin in the NYT lens blog about Saul Leiter's B&W images, see https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/saul-leiters-black-and-white-photo-world/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Just FYI.
Wonderful Andy, thanks for putting this together. One of the great photographers of our time IMO. Might be interested in the following, this is from his first retrospective at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany in 2012
- Saul Leiter walk into his exhibition for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTxOcmsAnmo
- Catalog accompanying the exhibition (published by Kehrer) https://youtu.be/afEho3RjkzE
- Artist Talk with Saul Leiter at the exhibition: https://soundcloud.com/deichtorhallenhamburg/k-nstler?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fdeichtorhallenhamburg%252Fk-nstler
Some years ago, I wrote an essay for my blog called “Color Before Color,” in which I discuss the recent - at that time - discovery of the color work of Leiter and Herzog. And the article also touches on the beginnings of color in fine art photography. In the article, I clearly favor Herzog, but I’d probably give Leiter a bit more credit were I writing it today. Hope you’ll read. http://www.brianrose.com/blog/2014/01/new-yorkcolor-before-color/
I have seen the give away book and it’s wonderful. Leiter is one of my muses for my pursuit of color ideas. There are many but he is one who challenges, invites, me to see the extraordinary in the mundane.
Leiter is by far my favorite photographer. I now have 8 or 9 books of his photography and I was in awe when the latest book was published. Color slides are amazing and it would be great if an exhibit was held with his slides like the Gary Winogrand exhibit of his slides. Thanks for all of these audio and video clips
Really liked this
There are very good links contained in your post, thank you for them. I was very impressed at the connection one of the you tubers made about how Painting informs photography and vice versa, as in the photo he shared by Edgar Degas and I must say that viewing that image changed my life! And yes, beauty is important in our lives.
Happy Holidays Andy! All the best!
Thanks for the mention Andy and the wonderful read on Saul.
Thanks Andy, lovely read. And down the Saul Leiter rabbit hole I go.
Thank you soooo much for this wonderful post, truly enjoyed it! Great story and details, loved the videos and the participants memories and recollections...Brilliant!!
Well done, Andy! I enjoyed this a ton! Best, B
What a great issue. This is so much better than the Twitter experience. Thank you for this lovely ode to a great master.