Gallery FIFTY ONE is pleased to present an exhibition dedicated to the work of Saul Leiter (1923–2013), bringing together a selection of rare early Cibachromes and a group of paintings.

Widely celebrated today as one of the pioneers of colour photography, Leiter always considered himself a painter first. Long before his photographs received international recognition, he moved freely between brush and camera, developing a language in which the boundaries between the two became increasingly blurred. This exhibition follows that dialogue.

The Cibachromes on view, which are among Leiter’s earliest colour prints, made directly from his original transparencies, reveal the richness of the artist’s vision. The process, known for its density and saturation, gives the prints a depth and tonal subtlety that bring them close to painting: objects with a material presence of their own.

Alongside the Cibachromes, a group of paintings, works on paper made primarily with gouache and watercolor, offer a closer view of Leiter’s creative process. Made throughout his life, often in private and largely unseen during his lifetime, they show an artist engaged with abstraction, gesture and colour. Influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, Bonnard and Vuillard, Leiter treated painting not as a separate discipline but as another way of seeing.

Photography, for Leiter, was never about description. Through rain-covered windows, reflections and fragments, he turned the everyday streets of New York into something closer to atmosphere than narrative. His paintings pursue the same search.

Bringing the two media together, this exhibition reveals the coherence of a single lifelong vision and the quiet, personal world behind it.

“A photographer’s gift to the viewer is sometimes beauty in the overlooked ordinary.” —Saul Leiter

Artists: Saul Leiter