Pierre Belhassen

Saul Leiter

Photographer

American·b. 1923

Known for:

color street photography in New York during the 1940s–60s

Education:

Self-taught photographer and painter

Saul Leiter began photographing the streets of New York in the late 1940s and produced some of the earliest and most considered color street photographs, working with Kodachrome and a Leica rangefinder. He spent decades largely outside the art world's attention, earning his living as a fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar and Elle. A retrospective in 2006 introduced his work to a wider audience.

Saul Leiter's Gear List(2)

Leica M3

Leica

Connection Source

SaulleiterfoundationInterview

Connection note

Leiter used a Leica rangefinder for his street work in New York; documented in interviews and the documentary "In No Great Hurry" (2013).

Product description

Introduced in 1954, the M3 was Leitz's first camera to use the M bayonet mount. Its combined viewfinder and rangefinder, with 0.91x magnification, set a standard for 35mm rangefinder design that every subsequent Leica M followed.

Know something Saul Leiter uses that's not listed?

Related artists

René Burri

Photographer

Ernst Haas

Photographer

Last updated March 20, 2026

Kodak Kodachrome 64

Kodak

Connection Source

ImdbDocumentary

Connection note

Leiter's use of Kodachrome is featured in "In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Leiter" (2013).

Product description

Kodachrome 64 is a color reversal (slide) film discontinued by Kodak in 2010 after more than seven decades of production. Its dye-based structure produced colors with exceptional stability and saturation, and it was the predominant film in professional color photography for much of the postwar period.

Find on Adorama ↗