CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/25/2018

Psychological and erotic, "Saul Leiter: In My Room"

How we love Saul Leiter: In My Room, Steidl's long-awaited collection of the photographer's tantalizingly unselfconscious nudes. "Leiter's nudes have a spontaneous and romantic quality, like the scattered pages of a diary, or stills from early movies," Carole Naggar writes. "These women are completely natural in front of Leiter's camera, and uninhibited. They are waking up, taking a bath, applying lipstick or makeup, smoking the first cigarette of the day… They are dressing, undressing, pulling a skirt's zipper, unbuttoning a blouse, or simply daydreaming… Leiter's gaze is not that of the typical male: the women can be in turn shy, aggressive, or playful, but they always appear to be partners and full participants in a give-and-take, a dialogue, very aware of the photographer and the photograph that is being taken. In other words, these are not traditional nudes but rather portraits of women who happen to be in the nude. The psychological component is as strong as the erotic, in balance with Leiter's formal concerns."