So while shooting in Shibuya last weekend I passed by one of the Daikokuya shops in the red light district. It's a place that among many other things resells tickets. I usually don't pay much attention to what they have, but something caught my eye. I saw the words ソール ライター (Saul Leiter in Japanese) on one of the flyers they had posted outside. Amazing, I thought. The amount of information we actually process unconsciously... anyhow I checked it out online. It turns out this is the first time ever to have Saul Leiter's work exhibited in Japan. I am a pretty big fan of his and already have one of his color books. I went back and immediately got tickets and went the same day.
I initially intended to record a video of the exhibition, but sure enough they didn't allow any cameras inside.
The show starts with his black and white work he shot mostly for Harper's Bazaar. All the black and whites were silver gelatin prints ranging from at least 20x24 to 5x7 prints. All of them amazing. I don't know who made the prints or how old they are but they look fantastic. The show then moves into his color work. All chromogenic prints except for one cibachrome print I spotted. They were all originals, no reproductions of prints. One small part of the show showed some of his paintings. I have to say I was the least impressed with them, but I am not much into paintings and maybe other people would find that interesting. I know to him it was a big deal and probably what made him such a good photographer.
I was also able to pick up a few postcards and a book of the pictures from the show. See pics below. It really is different seeing all his work in person with your eyes instead of looking at scans of photos of photos online. If you're in Tokyo and interested in photography I highly highly recommend going there. The tickets can still be purchased at the entrance for a slightly higher price (1400 yen) and the show is on until June 25th, 2017.
Enjoy!
