Saul Leiter, colour ahead of its time
« American photographer (1923-2013), forgotten pioneer of colour street photography, rediscovered in the 21st century. »
Saul Leiter dropped out of rabbinical studies in 1946 to become a painter in New York. He settled in the East Village and never left. From 1948 he photographed in colour — Kodachrome, later Ektachrome — long before colour was taken seriously by the photographic art world.
Steamed glass, reflections, snow, umbrellas, taxis seen through a shop window: Leiter composed his frames like an abstract painter. Mark Rothko and Richard Pousette-Dart were his neighbours. He also shot Harper's Bazaar covers in the 1960s but stayed off the institutional circuit.
His rediscovery began in 2006 with Early Color, published by Steidl. The documentary In No Great Hurry (2014) made him famous at 90. "Many of the things I've photographed are not important to anyone," he said in his modest irony. He died in 2013, with no heirs.