Saul Leiter

The distinctive iconography of Saul Leiter's earliest black-and-white photographs stems from his profound response to street life in 1940s and 50s New York City. While Leiter's technique borrowed from the immediacy of photo-documentary work, his imagery was generated by subjective and highly individual reactions to the people and places he encountered. The mystery of the city propelled his art, and poignant moments of human experience filled it: Leiter was a Magic Realist with a camera. He tended to work in series, and Saul Leiter: Early Black and White contains 100 remarkable photographs grouped under 10 thematic headings, ranging from the radically innovative to moving urban nostalgia.