shashasha

“I don’t have a philosophy. I have a camera.”
― Saul Leiter

Published one hundred years after the artist’s birth, “The Centennial Retrospective” celebrates the work and enduring impact of photographer and painter Saul Leiter. Produced in collaboration with the Saul Leiter Foundation, the book features famous masterpieces and many previously unpublished works from Leiter’s entire oeuvre, from his black-and-white landscapes to his intimate nude portraits, his fashion photography for Harper’s Bazaar, his paintings, and the color work shot on the streets of New York. Each of the five chapters includes essays that explore the innovative thinking, experimentation and sensibility behind his works, as well as his private life and how it relates to his images.

“In revisiting the photographs, especially the unending wilderness of the black-and-white images—the largest group n the archive—we were reminded that, in a uniquely Leiterish way, Saul blurred the boundaries between his work and his personal life. His friends and family were his models; he made a mark on the history of photography by taking pictures while walking home from lunch.
Saul wasn’t much of a planner, artistically or otherwise. He didn’t seek to control what he saw through his lens. He did not attempt to explain life, or even to say anything in particular. He was just sharing the things that came his way, things that most of us might not notice.
He was watching, looking, seeing. He was paying attention. And encouraging others to do the same.”
― from the foreword of Michael Parillo (Saul Leiter Foundation)