Saul Leiter: In My Room

The fruit of fantastic recent discoveries from Saul Leiter's vast archive, In My Room provides an in-depth study of the nude, through intimate photographs of the women Leiter knew. Showing deeply personal interior spaces, often illuminated by the lush natural light of the artist's studio in New York City's East Village, these black-and-white images reveal a unique type of collaboration between Leiter and his subjects. In the 1970s Leiter planned to make a book of nudes, but the project was never realized in his lifetime. Now, we get a first-time look at this body of work, which was begun on Leiter's arrival in New York in 1946 and honed over the next two decades. Leiter, who was also a painter, allows abstract elements into the photographs and often shows the influence of his favorite artists, including Bonnard, Vuillard and Matisse. Leiter, who painted and took pictures prolifically up to his death, worked in relative obscurity until he entered his eighties. He preferred to be left alone, and resisted any type of explanation or analysis of his work. With In My Room, Leiter ushers viewers into his private world while retaining his strong sense of mystery.
Saul Leiter was born in Pittsburgh in 1923. In 1946 he moved to New York to become a painter, but was encouraged to pursue photography by the photographic experimentation and influence of his friend, the Abstract Expressionist Richard Pousette-Dart. Leiter subsequently enjoyed a successful career as a fashion photographer spanning three decades, and his images were published in magazines such as Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Elle and British Vogue. His work is held in many prestigious private and public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Leiter died in November 2013.
Here, in an intimate monograph, Leiter's work is presented for the first time, allowing us a glimpse into his private world...He resisted explaining or analyzing his work, allowing the photographs to speak for themselves. This makes the images something of a Rorschach Test, inviting us to look inside and reflect upon what his work triggers in us.--Sara Rosen "Feature Shoot "
As New York's famous mid-century photographers set out to capture the city in shades of black and gray, Saul Leiter rendered its unassuming details in expressive color. Using temperamental expired film, Leiter saw the streets in sharp punches of red and vast seas of shadow. "Seeing is a neglected enterprise," Leiter once said. A painter as well, he captured the impression of a place--figures, snow, fog, concrete, and lamplight--daubed, like brushstrokes.--Jacqui Palumbo "Artsy "
The book is an homage and a love letter.--Vince Aletti "Photograph "
The images are lovingly and expertly reproduced in a broad dynamic range from delicate gray tones to rich blacks, and is beautifully printed on heavy matte paper by master printer Steidl.--Richard Rivera "New York Journal of Books "
These quiet, intimate black-and-white photographs, which Leiter developed himself in his darkroom, were kept under lock and key during his lifetime; only a few friends knew them. His female models were friends or lovers whom the artist portrayed in the everyday setting of his New York apartment; they were not professional nude models. As if in an act of conspiracy, they joined the photographer in playful collaboration to challenge the dualistic principle of voyeurism and exhibitionism.--Eye of Photography
The great photographer captured thousands of unguarded moments in his New York studio, finding beauty in surprising places.--Guardian
It is the clear sense of collaboration between subject and artist that makes these images so striking.--Daisy Woodward "AnOther Magazine "