Snow – Saul Leiter

Snow – Saul Leiter

Created in 1960, Snow captures a solitary figure and a yellow vehicle through the condensation of a steamed-up New York shop window. Water trails, reversed lettering and blurred silhouettes dissolve the street scene into an almost abstract composition, giving the photograph a quiet, cinematic sense of mystery.

Saul Leiter was an American photographer and painter known for transforming everyday Manhattan life through colour, reflection and unusual framing. Long before colour photography was widely accepted as fine art, Leiter used fogged windows, snow, umbrellas and passing vehicles to create intimate images that resemble paintings more than traditional street photographs. He is now regarded as an important pioneer of twentieth-century colour photography.

Artist: Saul Leiter
Title: Snow
Date: 1960
Style: Colour street photography