Street Photo of the week by Saul Leiter

Street Photo of the week by Saul Leiter

This week, we recognise Saul Leiter as the Master of Photography he surely is. Dying, alas, always brings images of the person to the fore and for most the homage bears upon a single image or series. For Saul Leiter this is impossible. Even though known for certain attributes such as; having a ‘painterly quality’ in his photographs which his contemporaries didn’t, or being able to use colour to push the emotional feeling in his images. He is known for colour rather than an image. Having looked through as much as we can find of his oeuvre we noticed Leiters work always appears to be peeking out or through, almost always another pane of glass between him and the happening he photographs,not just the lens.

Red Umbrella

We chose this shot as it exemplifies both the ‘peeking through’ and not only use of colour but the use of repetitive ovals to ensure a charismatic image. It is as if Saul Leiter wanted us to look through half lidded eyes just to get the ‘feel’ of the street rather than the actual ‘news’ of the street. Smudged and blurred , a just woken up feeling purveys this photo. Eyes just opening like the clouds, forcing you to remember where you are?

‘Oh! I’m in New York, god it’s raining. …To the airport ,please’ and you slump, half asleep, back into the seat.

About this weekly feature,

As you know, every Friday we feature a photograph of a Street Photographer on our website. The Street Photographer that is featured is selected by the Street Hunters team.

If you would like to have one of your shots featured on our website, then please contact us by visiting https://www.streethunters.net/contact/, or join us on our Flickr Group or subscribe to our GooglePlus Page.

Thank you