Saul Leiter
“A window covered with raindrops interests me more than a photograph of a famous person.”
Saul Leiter was a famous American street photographer from the middle to late 20th century. Unlike other street photographers, Leiter’s images capture and add on a sense of abstraction and mysteriousness to the atmosphere while being rather straightforward, allowing every individual to see the piece from different lenses and perspectives. Sometimes, even the most basic scenes of everyday life-a car in the rain, pedestrians, a man with his cigarette-can be captured by him to reflect deep meaning and our everyday lives.
Leiter spent most of his life capturing street photography images in the city of New York after coming from Pennsylvania. Self taught, he was able to capture New York by showing its dense urban lifestyle and heavy atmosphere, showing people and objects through realistic perspectives, which was later seen and described as poetic and painterly. In the 1940s, he started experimenting with color photography, a medium which was adopted by others years later, and showed a throughout understanding of how to manipulate colors to convey feeling. During the time period in which photography was rather old school, used to take ‘lame’ as Leiter said-images of the rich and wealthy-he moved on by showing people submerged and blended in to the city environment, something modern photographers still do to this day.
His photographic style is something I wish to study during his unit. I wish to learn upon his usage of reflections and choice of lighting to make my image more inspiring and make the sense of atmosphere thicker and more obvious. The deep meaning and visual behind his images while still ensuring the tidiness and simplicity in the photograph is truly astonishing and I’m looking forward to using this as a reference in our Hutong trip later on.
“Snow, 1960″ Saul Leiter, New York City
This image captured during a snowy day shows a man passing through a street through a frost covered window. Even though being straight on and simple, the window and frost create layering, add on depth to the image, and emphasize the mood. The subject in the image-the man, is rather not the only main point of attraction. The faint words on the window and what presumably is a yellow vehicle in the background create a feeling of abstraction and blur-the very few elements in the image work together to show the ordinary and overlooked people in society through visually appealing lenses.
The maneuvering of color inside the photograph is also impressive. Looking back through the modern lenses, the contrast between the vehicle’s bright tone and person shadow, or dark tone, shows and gives off a feeling of bittersweet nostalgia and a sense of a slow paced lifestyle. To some extent, it also gives symbolizes purity and calmness. Saul Leiter’s photograph also doesn’t include sharp details, but rather uses shapes to give off feelings and emotions. Shapes frame the photograph in a way which they emphasize the subject and spread the mood of the man throughout the environment.
However, apart from the visual elements, the meaning behind the image is also interesting and worth paying attention to. The man in the image seems to staring at his left palm, which is surely not his phone considering the time period, symbolizing us a pause in time in the busy days of New Yorkers. Leiter himself has never truly analysed what he wanted to show through the photo. By rather appreciating street photography than “dissecting it” preserves the meaning of this art while respecting different views and meanings it conveys to each individual.
From this photograph, I wish to study Leiter’s application of colors to enhance mood and emotion, as well as using other object to frame my photograph to thicken the overall atmosphere. I can do so by using mirrors, reflections, and enhancing a combination of bright and dark tones. I will also try shots from unique angles and perspectives to mimic Leiter and see whether it would improve my photographs.
Works Cited
“Art Net.” Saul Leiter, www.artnet.com/artists/saul-leiter/. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
Snow, 1960. Artsy, www.artsy.net/artwork/saul-leiter-snow-1. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
“This Week’s Photo — Snow — Saul Leiter.” Medium, medium.com/@arshdeep.nz/this-weeks-photo-snow-saul-leiter-7823d918517c. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
“The Understated Genius of Saul Leiter.” A Flash of Darkness, flashofdarkness.com/the-understated-genius-of-saul-leiter/. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.