History & Criticism - General & Miscellaneous Photography, 20th Century Photography - General & Miscellaneous, Specific Photographic Processes

Early Color

Name: Early Color
Author: Saul Leiter, Martin Harrison
ISBN: 9783865211392

by Saul Leiter, Martin Harrison

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Overview

Although Edward Steichen exhibited some of Saul Leiter's color photographs at The Museum of Modern Art in 1953, for 40 years afterward they remained virtually unknown to the art world. Saul Leiter: Early Color provides the first opportunity to see a comprehensive presentation of images by one of photography's great originals. Leiter moved to New York in 1946 intending to be a painter, but through his friendship with the Abstract Expressionist Richard Pousette-Dart, he quickly recognized the creative potential of photography. Though he continued to paint, exhibiting alongside Philip Guston and Willem de Kooning, Leiter's camera became--like an extension of his arm and mind--an ever-present interpreter of life in the metropolis. He sought out moments of quiet humanity in the Manhattan maelstrom, forging a unique urban pastoral from the most unlikely of circumstances. The lyricism and intensity of his vision come into fullest play in his eloquent handling of color unequaled by his contemporaries. Leiter's visual language of fragmentation, ambiguity and contingency is evoked by these 100 subtle, painterly images that stretched the boundaries of photography in the second half of the twentieth century.

Synopsis

A beloved photobook classic from the pioneer of color photography
This is a reprint of the immensely successful Early Color (2008), which presented Saul Leiter's remarkable body of color work to the public for the first time in book form. Although Edward Steichen had exhibited some of Leiter's color photography at The Museum of Modern Art in 1953, it remained virtually unknown to the world thereafter. Leiter moved to New York in 1946 to become a painter, but through his friendship with Richard Pousette-Dart he quickly recognized the creative potential of photography. Leiter continued to paint, exhibiting with Philip Guston and Willem de Kooning, but the camera remained his ever-present means of recording life in the metropolis. None of Leiter's contemporaries, with the partial exception of Helen Levitt, assembled a comparable body of work: subtle, often abstract compositions of lyrical, eloquent color.

About the Author, Saul Leiter, Martin Harrison

Saul Leiter was born in Pittsburgh in 1923, the son of a rabbi. His work was shown at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1947 and at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1953. Then--after a long gap comprising most of the 1950s through the 1980s--it began to appear in solo shows at major venues again, first at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (1991), then the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (2006) and coming soon, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris (2008). During this time Leiter's work also traveled to Chicago, Santa Barbara and Antwerp, and was assembled into several thematic solo shows at the Howard Geeenberg Gallery in New York, including Saul Leiter: Early Color, with its eponymous monograph. Leiter, who had meant to be a painter, and who has continued to paint on his own throughout his photography career, lives and works in New York. His work will be the subject of a major 2008 exhibition at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris.

Martin Harrison is widely regarded as the leading authority on the art of fashion photography. His previous books include Appearances: Fashion Photography Since 1945 (1991), David Bailey: Birth of the Cool (1999), Lillian Bassman (1997), Patrick Demarchalier: Exposing Elegance (1998), and numerous others.