this is why I love looking at Saul Leiter images

Great link Peter! The first one looks like it influenced your style, the second one with the watch looks staged (but still great).
 
Huss said:
Great link Peter! The first one looks like it influenced your style, the second one with the watch looks staged (but still great).
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Thanks for that Huss. He has influenced my style greatly, though the truth is I began shooting in this style before I had ever heard of Saul Leiter. But when, I did a little time later discover him, that discovery really acted as both a learning experience, an inspiration and a catalyst for me after seeing that this style of shooting is a legitimate way to make images. Not that I can hold a candle to him. He was the master. My stuff pales in comparison and I am nothing but an Antipodean try hard.

BTW In the final link in my signature st the foot of this post (see immediately below) in the article there linked, I talked about Leiter's work and how I learned from it.

And Tim thank you too.
 
Thanks Peter, from another Leiter admirer.
I can recommend his book In My Room if you don't already have it.
PS I also admire Ernst Haas's colour work, which is similar to Leiter's. Haas was the greater influence on me, including his motion studies.
 
Thank you, Peter.

Another firm admirer of Saul Leiter. So atmospheric and of his time, and so often imitated but never bettered: a true master.

He’s one of the few photographers that taught me colour is okay.
 
Interesting how all these pictures are portrait orientation, unusual for street photography today (and even then). My own ventures in portrait orientation have always been abortive because of the limitations of today's display media. (They display smaller on landscape-shaped computer screens and don't generate much enthusiasm in street photography forums in places like Flickr).
 
Dogman, I hadn’t seen that before. It’s a goldmine of sorts. Just started dipping in (to mix metaphors), and came across the Sylvania flashbulb ad. Lots of photographs I hadn’t seen before.
 
Huss, Leiter worked as a fashion photographer among other things. That photo with the watch was probably from one of his fashion shoots.

Sevres, glad you found the link enjoyable.

And, Peter, thanks for the post. I've been following Leiter since the "Early Color" book was published. I'm glad he received the recognition he deserved even though it came very late in his life.
 
I shoot street photography exclusively in B&W. Many, many years ago I came across Leiter's work and was blown away. I immediately grabbed a camera and shot some color film on the streets, trying to emulate his style. I failed miserably. His style is very complex and not at all easy to replicate. I quickly went back to B&W and learned to simply enjoy his work. He was a true master.
 
Color street photography is so much harder to master. I think it's why you see so much black and white street photography to be honest. Stick with it and you learn. It's a very satisfying challenge.

Saul Leiter was an amazing photographer. I wish I could get close to colors of those photos above. No more kodachrome and nothing I've seen digitally gets close to it. Best I've gotten is creating my own LUTs and applying them in photoshop but still not quite there.

Thanks for the links.
 
nightfly said:
Color street photography is so much harder to master. I think it's why you see so much black and white street photography to be honest. Stick with it and you learn. It's a very satisfying challenge.

Saul Leiter was an amazing photographer. I wish I could get close to colors of those photos above. No more kodachrome and nothing I've seen digitally gets close to it. Best I've gotten is creating my own LUTs and applying them in photoshop but still not quite there.
Click to expand...

Kodachrome's demise was a tragedy. However, if you are willing to look beyond slide film, there are stunningly beautiful color negative films from Kodak and Fuji today that didn't exist then, some of which have significantly higher resolution than Kodachrome (removing some of the rationale for using slide film in the first place; also, negative films are not just "print" films anymore) while also being much faster. Something like Ektar or the new Portra 400, or even some cheap consumer grade films, will still give more pleasing and balanced color images than any digital LUTs in my experience, and effortlessly so (which is why I moved away from digital - digital color is hugely labor-intensive in my experience). Many photographers I follow are using these films beautifully nowadays.

At least some of the difference between now and then is, unfortunately for us, the disappearance from the public and commercial sphere of some really interesting and beautiful colors and styles that were popular in the past (paints, advertising, fashion). It seems to me that since the 80s humanity's use of color in the public sphere has gradually been dumbed down by committee. We cannot create pictures like than anymore because the color doesn't exist anymore "in the wild." That we cannot fix.
 
I was trying to locate this video but had trouble because I had the lady's name wrong. Margit Erb giving a talk on Saul Leiter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsTh0dujQIE

She is the director of the Saul Leiter Foundation and she was apparently a huge help to him during the final years of his life.

(I haven't seen this video in some time but if I remember correctly this video is the one in which Ms Erb tells about Leiter's fascination with digital cameras although he didn't care much for the technologies involved. She had to read the owner's manuals of any camera he bought so she could explain to him how to use it. Leiter also shot pictures until the card was full and stored it away. Would love to see some of those photos.)
 
Its very interesting to see how well regarded Leiter's work is. He is gone but his work lives on. So thanks for posting and thanks especially for the videos on him.
 
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