Saul Leiter Street Color

Description

Saul Leiter shot color street photography in New York from the late 1940s through the 1970s while almost nobody else was — Walker Evans and Cartier-Bresson had decreed that serious photography was black and white, and Leiter simply ignored them. He was rediscovered late, with the first major monograph (Early Color) appearing in 2006 when he was 82. His work is now the dominant reference for "painterly color street." Visual rules: shooting through obstructions — rain-spattered windows, condensation, shop signage, scaffolding, mirrors — so the foreground is partially out of focus and the subject is glimpsed rather than captured; long focal lengths (often a 150mm on his Leica) that compress space and isolate slivers of color; a palette of muted reds, greens, deep blues, and browns drawn from his concurrent practice as a painter; figures often seen as small elements within a larger field of color shape; a refusal of the "decisive moment" in favor of ambient quiet. Use it for street photography, urban editorial, rainy-day mood, color-led atmospheric work, and any image where the city should feel painted rather than reported. Models default to either "street photography black and white" or oversaturated color. Specify "Saul Leiter color street, shot through rain-spattered window or signage, long telephoto compressing space, muted reds and greens and deep blues from a painter's palette, figure as small element in field of color, 1950s New York."