After coming to New York in 1946, he exhibited alongside Abstract Expressionists like Willem de Kooning before beginning in the late 1940s to take black and white photographs. This can perhaps be attributed to the fact that Leiter saw himself for a long time mainly as a painter. Saul Leiter Photography can be purchased through Howard Greenberg Gallery.Saul Leiter (1923–2013) has only in recent years finally received his due as one of the great pioneers of color photography. There is a documentary about Saul Leiter called In No Great Hurry. I’m not sure who influenced who but it would be interesting to see an exhibition of their umbrella works hanging together. Soames Bantry painted umbrellas and I see as I look through Saul’s vast collection of works I see that he also had a thing for umbrellas. I wish I didn’t let the years go by without staying in touch with him. That’s Peter Rogers behind me on the phone and a Bill Blass ad hanging on the wall. He was never without his Leica camera and took this photo of me one day during a meeting. He had a magnificent window that we would place the model near for the natural light, soft and beautiful. His studio/home was a cluttered mess and was every inch Saul. Like most commercial photographers he created work that was for “product” and then he had his private photography, not-for-sale. The Echo ads were two page spread with lots of white space.

The philosophy at Peter Rogers Associates was less is more. The ad campaign tag line was “The Echo of an interesting woman”. Saul was the photographer for the Echo Scarves campaign. I was working at the time at Peter Rogers Associates, a fashion advertising agency on Fifth Avenue. His partner in life, Soames Bantry, was usually with him and they were both so kind to “this” young art director. He was not overly ambitious and had a real casual way about him. Saul Leiter was a photographer I frequently worked with back in my advertising days in New York City.

So I googled him and was shocked to learn of his passing in 2013.

I knew that in the last ten years his art photography has received critical acclaim. I recently received an email from Pinterest with pins I might like and noticed that an old friend’s photography was among the pins.

Saul leiter photography