Product Description

Although Edward Steichen exhibited some of Saul Leiter's color photographs at The Museum of Modern Art in 1953, for 40 years afterward they remained virtually unknown to the art world. Saul Leiter: Early Color provides the first opportunity to see a comprehensive presentation of images by one of photography's great originals. Leiter moved to New York in 1946 intending to be a painter, but through his friendship with the Abstract Expressionist Richard Pousette-Dart, he quickly recognized the creative potential of photography. Though he continued to paint, exhibiting alongside Philip Guston and Willem de Kooning, Leiter's camera became--like an extension of his arm and mind--an ever-present interpreter of life in the metropolis. He sought out moments of quiet humanity in the Manhattan maelstrom, forging a unique urban pastoral from the most unlikely of circumstances. The lyricism and intensity of his vision come into fullest play in his eloquent handling of color unequaled by his contemporaries. Leiter's visual language of fragmentation, ambiguity, and contingency is evoked by these 100 subtle, painterly images that stretched the boundaries of photography in the second half of the 20th century. Introduction by Martin Harrison. Clothbound, 7.75 x 7.75 in./176 pgs / 100 color.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71511 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-15
• Released on: 2006-01-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 168 pages

From the Publisher
From PDN, The Legends Issue, 2007
Leiter's place is now assured. He will forever be known as one of the first photographers to use color in a serious, artistic way. Meticulously printed, his pictures use muted colors...that help tamp down the volume and motion of frenetic city streets. His prism tempers the more anxious, acerbic portrayal of city life offered by his peers Robert Frank and William Klein...Leiter's photographs are as likely to be compared to abstract expressionist painters like Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman or Richard Pousett-Dart.

About the Author
Saul Leiter was born in Pittsburgh in 1923, the son of a rabbi. His work was shown at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1947 and at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1953. Then--after a long gap comprising most of the 1950s through the 1980s--it began to appear in solo shows at major venues again, first at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (1991), then the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (2006) and coming soon, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris (2008). During this time Leiter's work also traveled to Chicago, Santa Barbara and Antwerp, and was assembled into several thematic solo shows at the Howard Geeenberg Gallery in New York, including Saul Leiter: Early Color, with its eponymous monograph. Leiter, who had meant to be a painter, and who has continued to paint on his own throughout his photography career, lives and works in New York. His work will be the subject of a major 2008 exhibition at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris.

Martin Harrison is widely regarded as the leading authority on the art of fashion photography. His previous books include Appearances: Fashion Photography Since 1945 (1991), David Bailey: Birth of the Cool (1999), Lillian Bassman (1997), Patrick Demarchalier: Exposing Elegance (1998), and numerous others.