Saul Leiter is known for his street photography. He was one of the early pioneers of colour photography. A lot of his work is a documentation of his neighbourhood.
My favourite of his work is where he shot through windows, normally wet or misted. It creates some quite abstract work. In some he has made a clear part of the window that frames the person on the other side. The rest of the image is not clear because of the mist on the window. Although he hasn’t focused on the reflection of the window, the window still stands between the subject and photographer. It shares the same idea of being isolated from the subject. In previous theoretical research I looked into how important the relationship between subject and photographer is. In this work that relationship seems non existent. This creates this feeling of unknown, we have no idea who it is or why he has taken his picture. It also feels quite invasive, this person was probably going about their daily life, unaware of being in a photo.
There is some of Leiter’s work where the subject is completely unrecognisable. The mist on the window means all you can recognise is shapes and colour. It works well though, the person doesn’t need an identity. Instead the viewers focus is directed to different parts of the image.
Although visually, Leiter’s practice has a different approach, the use of window adds the similar feel to it. That boundary between photographer and subject changes the way the viewer sees the image. The subject becomes anonymous and the context of the image is less clear. This will be different in my project as I do know the subject, but I want the window to be able to represent these emotions of isolation.
Lucy Davis 