Creating Neon Poetry With a Patient Camera

The New York School street photographer Saul Leiter is the subject of Tomas Leach’s “In No Great Hurry.”

‘In No Great Hurry,’ a Documentary About Saul Leiter,

By DANIEL M. GOLD

Published: January 2, 2014

Now considered among the very best of the New York School street photographers, and a leading exponent in the artistic use of color film, Saul Leiter came to this acclaim rather late. While much of his most powerful work was made in the 1950s, it wasn’t truly rediscovered until nearly a half-century later. 

That’s largely because of Mr. Leiter’s almost pathological modesty, as Tomas Leach’s documentary, “In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter,” amply demonstrates. “My own achievements are rather minor,” Mr. Leiter, seated in his cluttered East Village apartment, insists genially, questioning the need for a film. Half-jokingly, he says that if he doesn’t like it, he won’t allow its release.

“In No Great Hurry” is not a rigorous examination of Mr. Leiter’s art. Instead, between conversations, it floats some of his most ethereal, lustrous images, soft, layered scenes that glow with a watercolor’s warmth, sharp departures from the gritty cityscapes of his contemporaries. His best work seems both of the moment and timeless. 

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