December 3, 1923 – November 26, 2013, was an American photographer and painter whose early work made a significant contribution to what later became known as the New York School of photography. His images are distinguished by their painterly abstraction, subtle use of color, and quiet observation of everyday urban life.

After initially studying theology with the intention of becoming a rabbi, Saul Leiter left religious school in his early twenties and moved to New York City to pursue art. There he developed a parallel practice in painting and photography and was encouraged toward photography by artists such as Richard Pousette-Dart and W. Eugene Smith. Working with a 35mm Leica, he became part of a loose circle that included figures like Robert Frank and Diane Arbus.

Leiter began photographing in color as early as 1946, well before color photography was widely accepted as an artistic medium. While his black-and-white work was included in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1950s, his color photographs remained largely unknown for decades. From the late 1950s onward, he supported himself primarily as a fashion photographer, publishing in magazines such as Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and British Vogue.

Despite his early innovations, Leiter lived in relative obscurity until his work was rediscovered in the late 1980s. A renewed interest in his photography led to the publication of photobooks in the 2000s and to major exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg in 2012. Today, his work is regarded as a foundational bridge between street photography, color abstraction, and the photobook.

Reference
Biography text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), German edition. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Leiter