Photographer Saul Leiter - A Street Photographer who loved abstraction and beauty

today I'd like to talk about saw later and his work he's a photographer who only stepped into the spotlight later in his life his photographs are romantic nostalgic and form a bridge between photography and painting his distinctive color work is immediately recognized and I haven't yet come across anyone who doesn't appreciate his work he was also a very humble self-effacing individual talking about himself in the film in no great Harry he said I'm not carried away by the greatness of Mr lighter he is a minor figure unlike Robert Franco Diana bus he wasn't interested in analyzing or making a statement about Society or The Human Condition he was inspired by Beauty and he would Delight in the nice things in the world his fellow photographers appreciated his talent and he was included in what was called the New York school it included photographers like Abbas Frank Eugene Smith William Klein and Richard Everton thank you so later was born in Pittsburgh in 1923 and his Rabbi father wanted Saul to follow in his footsteps but he found the religious path too restrictive and he felt stifled by his father so at the age of 23 left Cleveland Seminary and went to New York to become a painter he said that he was a refugee from his father's house there he met painters and photographers and it was Eugene Smith who introduced him to photography however it was only after visiting Henry Cartier brasson that he understood the possibility of fulfilling his artistic Ambitions through the medium of photography he started working for magazines and developed a reputation as a fashion photographer working for Harper's Bazaar L and Vogue in his spare time he would take the pictures that eventually made him famous you can see in his fashion images that his aesthetic was already well formed it's a little Slicker and more commercial but there are many aspects of his personal Vision that become evident in his commercial work there are a lot of reasons why his photographs are so distinctive and why they appeal to such a large audience at the time that it was establishing himself in New York the painting scene was shifting rapidly towards what would become known as the abstract expressionist movement you can see in these examples of his paintings that he was clearly interested in communicating artistically through abstraction he understood the value of abstracting color within the frame into segregated fields if you look at these four Images I've blurred them in order to emphasize the color components foreign [Music] if you compare these blurred images to Mark rothko paintings you can see the similarities [Music] these are striking color field photographs in which he's allowed a single tone to fill most of the frame generally he used abstraction to obscure any form of documentary type meaning opening the images up for the view to recognize other logical patterns such as shapes color interplays and form his choice of longer lenses either 90 mil or 150 mil resulted in a condensed sense of perspective he was compressing layers of information that if you used a wider lens would imply depth so he squashed all these layers into a two-dimensional frame this is a good segue into the next feature of lightest photographs and that is how he softened details just like rothko he managed to merge his colors and shapes into a painterly haze he would achieve this result by often photographing on rainy or Misty days or photographing through glass sometimes with condensation he also employed the technique of allowing a part of his frame that was closest to his lens to blow out due to focus while the details further away from the lens remain Sharp he never allowed his abstractions to go too far he almost always gives the viewer something to latch onto if he had pushed the abstraction Beyond a certain point it would just become boring because then it would just be color components without any context these two images show where he's almost thrown the whole frame into an abstracted form but with small detailed elements he still keeps the viewer linked to reality while on the subject of painterly influences his color palette is very specific his soft colors are muted and complementary very unlike say the more recent work of Alex Webb who is drawn to deep saturated and contrasty colors his images take on a romantic mood but he never pushes them into the cheesy category like say wedding photographers who use the same idea of warm muted tone to bring a romantic feel to their images another aspect that adds appeal to his work is the Nostalgia Factor perhaps one of the reasons why his work didn't catch on at the time that he took them is that back then the scenes that he was photographing were commonplace now there's a hankering back to a time when things were simpler and more naive the clothes that people wore the hairstyles cars old signage all add to this look lighter's aesthetic has recently been reproduced in cinema the director of the film Carol Todd Haynes reproduced lighter's visual language using muted color turns mirrors and other devices he said that the look was a nod to saw light as visual aesthetic the series The Queen's Gambit also borrowed a few of these retro color techniques in the 50s and 60s photography was following the broader critical stance against how Society had developed and the Stark reality of the failed American Dream latest pictures were also taken only a few decades after Alfred stieglitz had steered photography away from the thinking that the medium needed to resemble drawings or watercolors in order to become accepted as art from the end of the second world war stieglitz used his influence within the photo succession group camera work magazine and at MoMA to change photography's profile so there are multitude of factors that add to the present-day enthusiasm for his work that weren't as appealing at the time that they were taken I'm not sure whether the photographs that he took in the decade before his passing would have had the same emotional appeal as those that He took during the 40s and 50s there's a method you would only use outdated or overheated film in order to achieve his color results but he made it clear during an interview that he was very untechnical in his approach he basically used whatever he could get his hands on he said that he initially bought outdated film because that was all that he could afford and although he thought the results were interesting he didn't make it his trademark when he was asked about how he developed his own Vision or visual language he said I think that the reason that I developed something on my own is that I didn't know anything better I did whatever I wanted to do just a few other painting parallels these two images use the technique of breaking the frame up into segments which entices the viewer to interact with the shapes rather than the content painter Mondrian was a master of this form lighter also broke the frame into horizontal and vertical strips in a similar manner to collage artists this photograph is really an abstract study of mostly black Grays and whites the Spanish artist Antonia tapiers would often use letters or familiar symbols to ground the viewer within the frame [Music] strong graphic shapes were also used by artists like kadinsky and they had the effect of creating form within a seemingly random scene [Music] lighter would return again and again to a strategy of isolating a single color within a larger mix of detail he was particularly drawn to the color red and he also had a fondness for umbrellas probably because they were often manufactured in bright colors in conclusion I want to look at other factors that delayed recognition of his work I think the biggest contributor was his personality he said that he had never been driven and he had a disdain for self-promotion he wasn't a careerist or a mover he was just interested in having a cool life and taking the pictures that he liked he admitted that sometimes he overlooked the fact that some things were actually of some importance he turned down an invitation from Edward steichen to participate in their now influential show the family of man luckily for us in his 70s he walked into the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York with a box of his early color slides exhibitions followed and a few years later his first book early color was published from then on Soul lighter has as they say continued to trend he's been called a street photographer and he did work on the street but he wasn't at all interested in its documentary potential he would fill his canvas with shapes colors and forms in order to achieve his poetic aesthetic as he once said his photographs were little fragments and Souvenirs of An Unfinished world I hope you enjoyed that and thanks for joining me see you next time cheers is it over yet this is good it really isn't what are they well [Music] and find out what the future holds in store [Applause]

Channel: Graeme Williams - Photographic Conversations

Views: 6,281

Keywords: Photography, photographer, Seeing, Visual, Ideas, Information, Insight, Art world, Snaps, Snapshots, Documentary, Photojournalism, Appreciation, art series, photography ideas, Photography education, Improve your photography, interpret art, contemporary, art education, Fine art, landscape photography, portrait photography, modern art, art documentary, Abstraction, Color tone, Shapes, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Fifties, street photography, learn photography, photography tips

Id: pMJdzzVoQAk

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 24 2022