Thoughts Like Judah Thor

Teju Cole on Saul Leiter for the New Yorker:

"Leiter was perhaps the most interesting of the fifties color photographers in his use of form. His bold chromaticism, off-center composition, and frequent use of vertical framing attracted attention—the work reminded people of Japanese painting and Abstract Expressionism..."

"...One of the most effective gestures in Leiter’s work is to have great fields of undifferentiated dark or light, an overhanging canopy, say, or a snow drift, interrupted by gashes of color. He returned again and again to a small constellation of subjects: mirrors and glass, shadows and silhouettes, reflection, blur, fog, rain, snow, doors, buses, cars, fedoras..."

"...But the overriding emotion in his work is a stillness, tenderness, and grace that is at odds with the mad rush of New York street life."

"...Leiter said, “There are the things that are out in the open and then there are the things that are hidden, and life has more to do, the real world has more to do with what is hidden, maybe. You think?”"

"...The content of Saul Leiter’s photographs arrives on a sort of delay: it takes a moment after the first glance to know what the picture is about. You don’t so much see the image as let it dissolve into your consciousness, like a tablet in a glass of water..."

Postscript: Saul Leiter (1923-2013) : The New Yorker

“Through boards” (1957)

“Canopy” (1958)

Kyle Johnson for The New York Times - Bar Sajor Chef Matthew Dillon's bycatch octopus salad with smoked yogurt and lobster mushrooms.

Psiché Hughes

Leopold Bloom's black cat

ceramic, 2013, 34 x 14 x 20cm

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jack Johnson

acrylic and oil crayon on canvas

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Untitled (Refrigerator)

acrylic, marker and collage on refrigerator