© Saul Leiter, 1957, Taxi

Leiter had developed an early interest in painting and was fortunate to meet the Abstract Expressionist painter Richard Pousette-Dart. Pousette-Dart and W. Eugene Smith encouraged Saul to pursue photography and he was soon experimenting with a 35 mm Leica. He began associating with other contemporary photographers such as Robert Frank and Diane Arbus and helped form what Jane Livingston has termed ‘The New York School’ of photographers during the 1940s and 1950s.

“Once, I took a taxi. I hate those limousines. They stink and their drivers have been driving dead people to the cemeteries.” (Klaus Kinski)