Saul Leiter’s nudes offer a stripped down side to the fashion photographer

Despite enjoying a long and fruitful career, American photographer Saul Leiter considered himself to be “ignored” in photography circles. The Pittsburgh native, who originally made his name shooting fashion for Harper’s Bazaar in New York, is now anything but overlooked — for over a decade Steidl have published his photobooks (with a new one this year, In My Room) and now, some of his more intimate work is shown alongside Helmut Newton and David Lynch at Saul Leiter. David Lynch. Helmut Newton: Nudes at the Helmut Newton Foundation. Opening tonight in Berlin, the exhibition presents over 200 of Leiter’s photos, which were kept private and hidden during his lifetime; only a select few of his friends knew about these quietly erotic black-and-white images.

Most famous, perhaps, for his painterly street photography, which set him up as one of colour photography’s most important pioneer’s, the exhibition presents a marked departure to his colourful fashion editorials and lively snapshots of New York City, which characterised his familiar output. In contrast, the photos on display at Nudes depict women together, or alone, in various states of undress. Leiter photographed friends and lovers in his apartment, creating a palpable intimacy between between photographer and subject. These are subtle and poetic images of private moments, which as viewer make you special to have been made privy to.

These images provide a thoughtful subtext to the photography that he’s best known for, compounding the sense of intimacy that ripples throughout his fashion and street photography. In the exhibited photos, Leiter’s gaze is tangible, but as these images were meant for his personal use, the photos are surprisingly less about the male gaze than they are about looking and capturing the personality and spirit of his models.

One of Leiter’s achievements as a fashion photographer was that he succeeded in making portraits that, as he put it later, looked “like a photograph rather than a fashion photograph”. This distinction between the two is what made his editorial work so viable. Now, with these nude portraits, we get to see more clearly how this idea was applied to all the elements of his practice.  These photographs do not operate within the generic form of the nude genre — they are sensitive, shy and considered, rather than exploitive.

With these are photographs, Leiter isn’t trying to make a great statement — they were made without an audience in mind. They are like poems scribbled in a journal that you can’t believe anyone, but you, will ever read. And yet, now five years after his death in 2013, these images stand as a testament to a life dedicated to the pursuit of a unique vision, rather than fame or exposure. For Leiter, looking at the world was his goal.

Saul Leiter. David Lynch. Helmut Newton: Nudes opens 30 November at Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin until 19 May 2019. 

Images courtesy of The Helmut Newton Foundation on behalf of  Howard Greenberg Gallery/ © Saul Leiter Foundation.