Saul Leiter: a brief biography

Saul Leiter was born in 1923 in Pittsburg, where he was introduced to art through books in the municipal library. Having exhibited his paintings at the Ten Thirty Gallery in Cleveland, the Outlines Gallery in Pittsburgh and the Gump department store in San Francisco, he left in 1946, against his father’s will (a well-known rabbi) and moved to New York, where he became a painter.

He was also very interested in photography, taking pictures of the streets in his district. In 1947 after visiting a Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the MoMA, he decided to devote himself completely to photography: black & white, then colour.

His black & white series "The Wedding as a Funeral" was published in LIFE in 1951.

His meeting with Edward Steichen, Artistic Director of Vanity Fair and Vogue, was decisive.

He exhibited twice at the MoMA and started working in fashion photography. His work was then published in ELLE, LIFE, Nova, Vogue and Queen.

With no formal training, he walked freely around Paris and New York, building up a very personal style, with often complex and subtle photos made up of light and shade in which his talent as a painter is clearly visible.

Exhibition

From 24 October 2011 to 4 March 2012, the Joods Historisch Museum (Museum of Jewish History) in Amsterdam is dedicating a major retrospective to Saul Leiter, a first in the Netherlands.

Further information about the exhibition.

Products published for the exhibition

Nouvelles Images is publishing a series of postcards and prints for this retrospective.