'In No Great Hurry Documentary': A Quiet Revelation of Saul Leiter's Art and Life

Discovering the Subtle Beauty of Saul Leiter's Photograph

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Saul Leiter, often referred to as a pioneer of color photography, occupies a unique space in the world of art and photography. His quiet, painterly approach to capturing the world stood apart from the fast-paced, gritty aesthetic of his contemporaries in the New York School of street photography. Despite his work being largely created in the 1950s, Leiter remained underappreciated until late in life, when his soft, evocative images began to garner the recognition they deserved. In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Leiter, directed by Tomas Leach, offers an intimate glimpse into Leiter’s world—a cluttered East Village apartment where art and life blur together, a space as layered and textured as his photographs.

Saul Leiter: A Singular Vision

Born in Pittsburgh to an Orthodox rabbi, Leiter turned away from the rigid expectations of his upbringing to pursue art in 1940s New York. He initially studied painting before finding his medium in photography. His mastery of color, composition, and abstraction transformed the seemingly mundane—a rain-soaked street, a fogged window, or a passing umbrella—into luminous poetry. His photographs evoke a serene, almost dreamlike Manhattan, emphasizing the quiet beauty of fleeting moments.