He would only be able to enjoy his fame another twenty years, and was never made wealthy from his work, perhaps because he had the humility of the “great photographers.

But it was his explorations of daily life that became the subject of celebrated books and exhibitions in the 1990s, when the photo world began to see him as one of William Eggleston’s equals. To make a living, he worked as a fashion photographer for the American magazine Harper’s Bazaar. Saul Leiter was fond of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints and perhaps under such an influence, he photographed purely for the search of beauty. His photographs show the wonder and humor that define his vision of the world, as well as his taste for painting, Vuillard and Bonnard in particular. Shy, tender and a little grumpy, Leiter loved the near-abstract compositions he spotted in the street while simply buying groceries or getting a coffee in his New York neighborhood. His efforts contributed to its eventual widespread use. Belatedly recognized as a pioneer of color photography, he began working in color in the 1950s, at a time when photographers swore by black-and-white. When the monograph Early Color was published in 2006, comprising work mostly done in the 1950s, it immediately established Leiter as a pioneer in colour photography and ignited a newfound worldwide interest in his career that continues to this day.The American photographer Saul Leiter died on November 26. Now firmly established as one of the worlds greatest photographers, Saul Leiter (19232013) was relatively little known until the 2006 publication of Saul.

To the rapid recording of the spontaneous unfolding of life on the street, Leiter adds an unconventional sense of form and a brilliantly improvisational, andįrequently abstract, use of true-to-life colors and tone. The lyricism and intensity of Leiter's vision come into full play in the artist's eloquent handling of colour, which is the focus of In Search of Beauty, the opening volume of the immersive Saul Leiter newsprint and ink series. But the camera became the medium through which he managed to capture and interpret the life of New York City in multi-layered compositions, as well as in intimate scenes, as nobody had done before. Leiter combined photography and painting all his life, and continued painting daily until his death in November 2013 at age 89.

Saul leiter prints