In My Room

透過黑白裸體影像，一睹後印象派攝影大師Saul Leiter眼中的世界！

 

　　1970年代，雷特（Saul Leiter）企劃製作一本有關裸體的書，但這項計畫終其一生沒有實現。現在，我們有機會一窺大師的想像世界，這是雷特從1946年抵達紐約之後二十年間淬煉出的作品。

 

　　身兼畫家與攝影師的雷特，攝影作品中常可見到抽象元素，風格深受他所喜愛的藝術家波納爾（Pierre Bonnard）、維亞爾（Edouard Vuillard）及馬締斯（Henri Matisse）影響。

 

　　一生創作、攝影不輟的雷特，在八十歲之後作風相對隱晦。他喜歡獨自一人創作，拒絕分析或解釋他的作品。在《Saul Leiter: In My Room》書中，雷特讓讀者恣意進入他的創作世界，讀者可一窺雷特眼中的裸體世界，這些黑白圖像展示出作者與作品間獨特的親密氛圍，但卻又能同時保持雷特一貫的神秘低調。

 

　　1923年出生於匹茲堡的雷特在1946年搬到紐約，最初期望成為一名畫家，但朋友抽象表現主義畫家Richard Pousette-Dart發現他的攝影潛能，鼓勵他成為攝影師。之後，雷特在時尚攝影事業上獲得極大的成功，Esquire、Harper’s Bazaar、Elle和British Vogue皆與他合作。雷特於2013年去世，作品在許多公私立博物館，例如紐約現代藝術博物館展出。(文/博客來編譯)

 

　　The fruit of fantastic recent discoveries from Saul Leiter’s vast archive, In My Room provides an in-depth study of the nude, through intimate photographs of the women Leiter knew. Showing deeply personal interior spaces, often illuminated by the lush natural light of the artist’s studio in New York City’s East Village, these black-and-white images reveal a unique type of collaboration between Leiter and his subjects. In the 1970s Leiter planned to make a book of nudes, but the project was never realized in his lifetime. Now, we get a first-time look at this body of work, which was begun on Leiter’s arrival in New York in 1946 and honed over the next two decades. Leiter, who was also a painter, allows abstract elements into the photographs and often shows the influence of his favorite artists, including Bonnard, Vuillard and Matisse. Leiter, who painted and took pictures prolifically up to his death, worked in relative obscurity until he entered his eighties. He preferred to be left alone, and resisted any type of explanation or analysis of his work. With In My Room, Leiter ushers viewers into his private world while retaining his strong sense of mystery. 
 

　　Saul Leiter was born in Pittsburgh in 1923. In 1946 he moved to New York to become a painter, but was encouraged to pursue photography by the photographic experimentation and influence of his friend, the Abstract Expressionist Richard Pousette-Dart. Leiter subsequently enjoyed a successful career as a fashion photographer spanning three decades, and his images were published in magazines such as Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and British Vogue. His work is held in many prestigious private and public collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Leiter died in November 2013.