Got Out

Matt got me out of the house by offering to meet me at the Howard Greenberg gallery to see the Saul Leiter exhibit. Color no less. And I loved it. I remember saying something stupid to Matt like, hey what do you call this style - because it reminded me a lot of my own style and maybe if someone knew what to call Saul Leiter than I would know what I was doing.

Of course, Matt didn't know what to call it anymore that I did, so when I got home I looked at the gallery card for some clues:


"[Saul Leiter has] a way of reformulating the random disjuntions of the urban mores and turning them into decisive artefacts of beauty and fascination..."

"Leiter's essential modernity resides in the dialogue he sets up between an abstract language of flat planes of color and the fragmented unfolding of life in the city. "

"...these street-encounters are transformed into improvisational images of an eloquent, often heart-wrenching poignancy." - Martin Harrison

I expect that this language can be applied to a lot of photographic work.

But whatever you call it I gravitated towards the most expensive prints which were going for $4,500. A very brief image flashed through my mind of having some very expensive piece on my wall - and with the humidity in the apartment I'd wake up and see it starting to ripple.

I told Matt that after the Kertesz exhibit he was now batting 1 for 2.

The good thing, besides the exhibit, was that it at least got me out of "printing mode" which I've been in for the last few months and I actually shot a roll of film. If you haven't shot on the street for a while, it feels very strange. You feel like people are looking at you. But that wears off and 57th and Madison is a great corner for street shooting.