Fifty One Fine Art Photography
Leiters vision is founded on his rapid eye for absorbing spontaneous events. Confronted by a dense web of data, fleeting moments in space and time, he employs an array of strategies to capture urban visual poetry that is by turns affectionate, edgy and breathtakingly poignant.
Fifty One Fine Art Photography is very pleased to present to you the upcoming exhibition of photographer Saul Leiter.
Saul Leiter (°1923) arrived in 1946 in New York with the intention of becoming a painter, in which he succeeded. Soon after this, his paintings were exhibited in several galleries, but his paintings never have become as successful as his photographs are now. His friendship with expressionist artist Richard Pousette-Dart, who experimented in the dark room with the manipulation of negatives, and with Eugene Smith were important stimuli in his recognition of the creative potential of photography. Although he never stopped painting, Leiters camera became like an extension of his arm, an ever-present tool while capturing metropolitan scenes, occasionally in Europe, ass well as in the USA.
Leiters vision is founded on his rapid eye for absorbing spontaneous events. Confronted by a dense web of data, fleeting moments in space and time, he employs an array of strategies to capture urban visual poetry that is by turns affectionate, edgy and breathtakingly poignant. He takes risks, disobeying the conventions of camera technique, but his sensibility sets his photographs apart from the defining characteristics of the ‘New York School’ that typify other 1950’s photographers like Robert Frank and William Klein.
Although Leiter was adept in black and white, the lyricism of his photographs is most acutely manifested in the eloquent interplay of his colour photography.
For the past years, the work of Saul Leiter became very successful and has been put back in honor, for his work has been very much underestimated between the 1960’s and 1990’s. Several factors conspired the delay recognition, for instance his disdain for self-promotion together with a solid artistic integrity.
This is already the second solo exhibition by Saul Leiter at Fifty One Fine Art Photography. This time, we will show colour photographs, as well as black and white images by his hand.
This exhibition is realized in conjunction with Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York.
Opening: January 29, 18-21h
Fifty One Fine Art Photography
Zirkstraat 20 - Antwerpen
Free admission