Saul Leiter (Photofile new)

Saul Leiter was one of those photographers who sought neither fame nor commercial success, despite his talent for image-making.

Born in Pittsburgh, he spent his entire adult life in New York City’s East Village, in an intensely creative environment where ideas from Europe and America came together and intermingled. There he encountered Mark Rothko and the abstract expressionists and discovered street photography and the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. His mastery of color is displayed in unconventional cityscapes in which reflections, transparency, complex framing, and mirroring effects are married to a very personal printing style, creating a unique kind of urban view.