Beauty in the Everyday

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There is something so poignant about Saul Leiter’s work that looking at it can feel like taking a dart to the heart. Drenched in luxuriant, saturated colors, the images instantly transport the viewer into the photographer’s shoes: peeping from beneath an awning to a snow-swept street, or through a befogged cafe window, weeping with condensation, to a man taking pause on a wintry sidewalk. Intimate and empathetic, Mr. Leiter’s photographs relay what all New Yorkers know about their roaring, daunting home: that life in the city is filled with stolen glimpses and fleeting, quietly personal and often gorgeous moments.

Flipping through a book of Mr. Leiter’s work about seven years ago, Tomas Leach, a commercial film director based in London, fell in love with the pictures. Though many of the images were more than a half-century old, Mr. Leach was struck by their timelessness and “curious, encrypted feel.”

He assumed that Mr. Leiter was a “recognized giant of photography,” but instead discovered that Mr. Leiter, now 89, was an elusive artist whose work was not widely known outside the photography world. “I was amazed,” Mr. Leach recalled. “There was nothing about this guy who’d done this clearly amazing, beautiful work.”

Saul Leiter, Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery Christmas. 1950s.

Mr. Leach decided to try to make a documentary of Mr. Leiter’s life, which required persuading a reluctant and reclusive subject. Mr. Leiter, who is also a prolific painter, eventually invited the filmmaker to his cluttered East Village apartment, greeting him with a gruff, “Why do people always want something from me?” Then he began telling Mr. Leach about all the other people he should make films about instead.

Finally, the project came together, and Mr. Leach’s film exploring this irascible, tender artist, “In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter,” will have its New York premiere at the Doc NYC film festival this week.

“He wouldn’t be someone who tries to make a great big statement,” Mr. Leach said. “He lets the work very much speak for itself.”

A previous version of this post incorrectly displayed the photographs in the slide show. We apologize for the technical error.

“In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter,” will have its New York premiere at the Doc NYC film festival, 333 West 23rd Street, on Nov. 16.

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