Interview with Saul Leiter
By David Gibson

Saul Leiter

DG: The Art Historian, Max Kozloff describes your work as ‘more soulful than many’ other photographers. Do you think this particular word is more appropriate than say just street photographer? What label if any would you apply to your photography?

Saul Leiter: I don’t apply labels to my photographs. I’d much rather have Max Kozloff do that. He’s much better at understanding and describing what I do. He once said that I’m not really a photographer I just use photography for my own purpose. I’m not sure what he meant but I like the sound of it.

DG: Your ‘early color’ is very distinctive in look – it is ‘old color’ like the work of Helen Levitt yet you seem very comfortable using digital cameras which normally have a different ‘now look.’ Are you ever concerned about the way color has changed?

Saul Leiter: I like using digital cameras. They make photography sometimes too easy. At different times things are different. The history of photography is a history of changes. If one has a sense of color it manages to survive the changes. That’s it.

 

Saul Leiter

Saul Leiter

Saul Leiter

DG: You have a vast body of work yet you are mostly known for a core set of images. Are there still rich seams to be mined in your old work which have unseen gems?

Saul Leiter: Yes, Margit and I found recently a group of things which are to be shown by Roger Szmulewicz in Antwerp. I believe they are rather nice and can hold up and do not need to apologize. It is sometimes true actually of many photographers who don’t know what they did and then one discovers good things. The history of photography keeps changing as one learns more about hidden and unknown things.

DG: How aware are you of contemporary photographers, are there any young / youngish photographers that impress you?

Saul Leiter: I think a lot of good things are being done now. The photography world is not coming to an end. Sometimes the New York Times reproduces beautiful photographs probably done by digital cameras. I am constantly running into good things done by young people.

DG: Do you consider recognition as a somewhat random occurrence or do you think that true creativity will eventually be given the respect it deserves?

Saul Leiter: The cream does not always rise to the surface. The history of art is a history of great things neglected and ignored and bad and mediocre things being admired. As someone once said “life is unfair.” In the 19th Century someone was very lucky. He or she acquired a Vermeer for $ 12. There are always changes and revisions of the appreciation of art, artists, and photography and writers and on and on. The late art of Picasso is no good but then a revision takes place and then it becomes very good as the art records indicate. Things come and go.

 

Saul Leiter

Saul Leiter

Saul Leiter

DG: Are there any particular photographers that you consider undervalued or neglected?

Saul Leiter: I think I am not an art critic. There are endless examples of work that are unknown that become known and appreciated. I am afraid this is the case for many. I am 89 and I know what I’m talking about – sometimes.

DG: You knew Eugene Smith quite well, who arguably had a heavy intense approach to his work. Your approach seems very light, even carefree in comparison. Would you agree with this?

Saul Leiter: I think Eugene is one of the great photographers in the history of photography. His way of telling a story in photography was unique. He was committed to using photography to make things better for others. Because of what he did in the story of the mid-wife a hospital was created. I am a different kind of photographer. Others will have to judge its value. Is it too light? Is it concerned with beauty? I understand it is admired by some people but not by everyone.

[David Gibson, 2013 / iN-PUBLiC]

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A Journey Inward
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Lyonel Feininger: Retrospective
Oct 27, 2023 – Feb 18, 2024
The German-American artist Lyonel Feininger is a classic protagonist of modern art. The Schirn Kunsthalle is dedicating an extensive...
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Torino Art Week / Exhibition
Presented for Torino Art Week 2023 and in collaboration with Recontemporary in Turin, Artpil proudly announces the 2023 exhibition...
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Prescription .143
Dorothea Lange's photography, now nearly a hundred years later, continues to resound in its portrayal of a time and...
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With REGENERATE as its theme, the festival brings together works that explore the changes modern society must face, seeing...
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  • 1 a 1 Affinità
    Nov 22, 2023 – Feb 29, 2024
    ON House Milano
    Milan, Italy

    1 a 1 Affinità is a group show celebrating the relationship between different artistic expressions and their surrounding context. The exhibition takes place at ON House Milano: a charming location in the heart of Milano, which used to be the Azucena workshop of Architect Caccia Dominioni.

    The combination of space, artwork, and the artworks between them invites the audience to discover, through research and observation, that “spark” of affinity generated by perception.

    The path follows the thin line that defines different artistic languages, such as figurative art and abstract art, but also performance, photography, NFT, happening, video and installation. And everything with the utmost respect to the historical heritage and design purpose of the house.

    This was, in fact, the toughest challenge for the curators Anna Kessler and Anna Niutta. They looked for the harmony within different poetics, and created a unique and unexpected domestic experience. An experience deeply related to the visible.

    Starting from the “Sleeping Girl” (yes, she will be actually sleeping in the bedroom of the house), the exhibition reveals a path through memories and people, mysteries and objects and colors and hopes. And in fact, isn’t the bed the one, true realm of imagery and imagination, dreams and visualizations?

    Every night, as we lay our day down, we practice the art of letting go. We leave our conscious thoughts, our rational mind behind, and we agree to see, and be seen  –  we accept to yield control. And as we do that, we gift ourselves to the domain of imagery  –  key and vehicle to those intimate, submerged places and spaces. At night, it is instinct and imagery that guide our experience.

    Research on the visible is a challenge to observation directed to the observer. There certainly is a real world that we know, but how much of this real world is exhausted in our sensory experience?

    Through the dialogue between works, the observer discovers similarities between different languages that ultimately prove to be distant only in appearance. Different artistic means manage to generate, through perception, a living impression in continuous dialogue with the observer.

    The common features, or affinities, between the different forms of expression appear very clear at times: the figurative often finds itself drawing from elements that are not properly its own, and the non-figurative struggles to disregard sensory reality that is also perhaps only an illusion.

    To what degree is our sensory perception conditioned by our inner state and to what extent is it – instead – influenced by our surroundings?

    The show will be featuring the following artists: Michele Dal Bosco, Louise Daniel, Giovanni De Benedetto, Laura Grinberga, Alessandro Grimoldieu, Rosanna Iob, Rebecca Loro, Guenda Nocentini, Carolina Pozzi, Maddalena Tesser, Maria Giovanna Zanella. With the precious contribution of Annalisa Iob. Everything was made possible by the vision of Fabio Tacchinardi.

    Curated by Anna & Anna
    On House Milano, Via Passione 8, Milan, Italy
    Vernissage by invitation only
    For more information: art@onhousemilano.com