Street Scene 1947

Saul Leiter made this photograph, no date, somewhere in a city. The light and shadow are so stark, so graphic, they almost flatten the image. It's like he's painting with light rather than capturing a scene. Look at the way the light rakes across the pavement, turning the mundane into something abstract. The figures are mostly in silhouette, becoming shapes rather than people. It's about the push and pull of light and dark, how they interact to create this mood, this feeling. I like how the shadow of the man with bags stretches out before him, almost like a premonition. Leiter's work reminds me a little of Edward Hopper, that same sense of urban isolation, of finding beauty in the everyday. Both artists understood that art wasn't about depicting reality, but about creating a feeling. And that's something that Leiter did so well, inviting us to see the world in a new way.