Saul Leiter
In No Great Hurry

  • United Kingdom
  • fr
  • [cc]
  • 75'
Saul Leiter | In No Great Hurry

Synopsis

In his studio, at home in the Lower East Side, Saul Leiter talks to director Tomas Leach about his family history, his first camera, his beginnings in fashion, and what drives him. A master of colour, he begins taking slides when everyone else is focused on monochrome. His painter's eye leads him towards photographic abstraction, an eye that conveyed an incomparable sense of colour and composition.

What you will learn in this film…

A master of colour photography • His contribution to the history of art • His first camera • The photographer looking for photographs in the street • His work environment • Editing sessions with his collaborator Margit Erb • A selection of archives • His life lessons • His family history • Key meetings • His favourite printer • His painting • What he likes about photography • The effect he wishes to have on those watching

I do like photographs when sometimes everything is lost and where in some corner something is going on you are not quite sure.

Documentaries about photography, and about the people who make it. 
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What you’ll find

Portraits of photographers, names everyone knows and others you’ll discover here. Films about street photography, war, fashion or portraiture, about printing and historical processes. About the trades of photography too. And then suggestions for going further, with Focuses, articles, interviews, bibliographies.

A small independent team

Documentaries about photography were rarely shown on television, and hardly at all on streaming platforms. We created The Darkroom Rumour to give them a place of their own. We are a small team, and we choose every film ourselves, with no school to defend.

Inspire your photography

In these films, you see photographers at work, in the field as well as in the darkroom. If you take pictures, you’ll often come away with an idea to try. If you simply like looking at images, you may start to see them differently.

How it works 

You can watch the films online, anywhere in the world, on a computer, tablet or phone, and on TV by mirroring your phone’s or computer’s screen. Every film is available in French and English, with no ads. New releases come out on Saturday or Sunday. The trial lasts 7 days, and if you stop before day 8, you pay nothing.

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Further exploration

Selected bibliography

• Margit Erb, Pauline Vermare and Motoyuki Shibata, All about Saul Leiter, Rm, 2018. Libraries

• Saul Leiter, Robert Benton and Carole Naggar, In My Room, Steidl Verlag, 2018. Publisher · Libraries

• Brigitte Woischnik (ed.), Saul Leiter: Retrospektive / Retrospective, Kehrer Verlag, 2015. Publisher · Libraries

• Max Kozloff and Jane Livingston, Saul Leiter Early Black and White, Steidl Verlag, 2014. Libraries

• Saul Leiter and Martin Harrison, Early Color, Steidl Verlag, 2006. Libraries

• Max Kozloff, Saul Leiter, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2008.

Online

• Why Saul Leiter Kept His Colorful Street Photography Secret for Decades, Jacqui Palumbo, Artsy, 2020.

• Saul Leiter: 1950-60s color and black-and-white, LensCulture.

• Saul Leiter in Conversation with Vince Aletti, School of Visual Arts, video, YouTube, 2014.

• Saul Leiter review: the quiet genius who made the mundane beautiful, Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 2018.

• A Casual Conversation with Saul Leiter, Phil Bicker, Time, 2013.

• Saul Leiter, Howard Greenberg Gallery.

• Richard Pousette-Dart, Richard Pousette-Dart Foundation.

Photographers quoted

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Walker Evans

Eugène Atget

André Kertesz

Eugene Smith