New York in a gesture, a detail, almost nothing
While photographers of his era aimed to represent the grandeur and modernity of New York, Saul Leiter chose the opposite path: transforming everyday life into visual poetry. In his images reality becomes lyrical — steam rising from manholes, umbrellas in the rain, reflections on shop windows — discreet and dreamlike fragments of a city captured more through suggestion than description. His vision rejects the dominant documentary approach of the postwar period to create instead “photographic haiku,” brief revelations where reality and abstraction merge. “Leiter had fun with what he saw. He was not interested in the hegemonic character of New York or its monstrous modernity,” explains curator Anne Morin. “He invented optical games, interweaving shapes and planes that conceal and reveal what lies in the intervals, the proximities, the invisible margins.”

Why this exhibition is extraordinary
We live in a fascinating paradox: while algorithms obsessively perfect every pixel, the public—exhausted by Instagram—returns to desire what is out of focus, barely suggested, imprecise. Art, once again, lives through contradictions. Imperfect photographs speak an involuntary but powerful language. Images that others might have discarded but that Saul Leiter instead sought out and that form the core of his poetics: obstruction becomes language, the off‑center photographic cut becomes style. Leiter would have rejected the obsessive perfection of our contemporaries, preferring accidental and natural imperfections to perfect definition. Unlike colleagues who sought sharpness and definition, Leiter embraced imperfection, photographing through fogged glass, curtains, rain or snow — elements he transformed into an integral part of the composition. His images, dense with layers and transparencies, blur the boundary between photography and painting. As early as 1948 he began experimenting with color, at a time when it was considered commercial or frivolous. Leiter instead made it a poetic language, anticipating by decades the acceptance of color in fine‑art photography. His bold and velvety tones transform street scenes into abstract and sensual compositions, soon attracting the attention of the fashion world. He collaborated with Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and, in the following decades, with Show, Elle, British Vogue, Queen and Nova.

A shy painter with a Leica
The exhibition highlights Leiter’s dual identity as painter and photographer, revealing how his painterly sensitivity shaped his photographic gaze. His training in the visual arts allowed him to approach color photography with unique elegance and delicacy, treating each image like a canvas.
“I have no philosophy. I have a camera,” Leiter used to say. “I look through the lens and shoot. My photographs are only a small part of what I see and what could be photographed. They are fragments of infinite possibilities.”
An anti‑diva by nature and reluctant to fame, Leiter published and exhibited only a portion of his vast body of work. Many negatives remained unpublished, preserving the most intimate and poetic aspect of his research. In 2018, five years after his death, a little‑known series of black‑and‑white nudes emerged — shot between the late 1940s and early 1960s — created in collaboration with the women in his life. His work, imbued with a secret order and mysterious balance, reveals the poet hidden behind the photographer.

Saul Leiter according to Anne Morin
“Leiter’s images last as long as the blink of an eye, positioned on the edge of something. They are snapshots, short fragmented forms, like annotations of reality. Created with a mastery and rhythm reminiscent of haiku. His gesture is that of a calligrapher: fast, precise, without excuses.”

Essential biography
The son of a well‑known rabbi, Saul Leiter abandoned religious studies to devote himself to art. In 1946 he moved to New York to paint, soon coming into contact with artists such as Richard Pousette‑Dart and W. Eugene Smith, who encouraged his photographic activity. From an early age he experimented with Kodachrome 35 mm film, photographing friends, passers‑by and street views around his East Village home. After a period of success in fashion photography, he spent two decades away from the spotlight. The publication of the monograph Early Color (2006) marked his international rediscovery, establishing him as a pioneer of color photography. Today his works are part of the collections of major museums around the world — from the Whitney Museum of American Art to the Victoria and Albert Museum — confirming his role as a key figure in the history of modern photography. Saul Leiter died on November 26, 2013 in his New York home. Of the tens of thousands of images he shot—many now considered among the finest examples of street photography in the world—most remain unprinted. The Saul Leiter Foundation, founded in 2014, preserves and promotes his archive through exhibitions, publications and cultural initiatives. After the centenary of his birth celebrated in 2023 with The Unseen Saul Leiter and Saul Leiter: The Centennial Retrospective, the Foundation continues to reveal new chapters of his extraordinary visual universe.

Saul Leiter through the eyes of Roby the Robin
Vertigo Syndrome also hosts a solo exhibition by an artist who created eight original works inspired by the life and thought of Saul Leiter. For this exhibition the artist Ernesto Anderle, known on social media for his page Roby il pettirosso, was selected. “I decided to tell the story of the person behind the artist by illustrating some of his thoughts and personal reflections that emerge during his interviews and through his works. I often focus on a single sentence in a book, or a single verse in a song, because I find it interesting to extract a detail from a work and invite the audience to dwell on a certain detail that may contain a powerful meaning.”

VERTIGO SYNDROME
A declaration of war on boredom and cultural elitism
Vertigo Syndrome was founded by Chiara Spinnato and Filippo Giunti in January 2022 and deals with the conception, organization and production of exhibitions “from idea to nail”. The common thread connecting all Vertigo Syndrome exhibitions is the desire to encourage a new culture of curiosity in Italy. The brand was created to challenge the model of major art‑exhibition operators, often characterized by a traditional and didactic approach aimed mainly at experts or cultural tourists. This has allowed Vertigo Syndrome to create its own niche in just a few years, with a loyal audience and a strongly recognizable identity.

SAUL LEITER IN BOLOGNA
Palazzo Pallavicini - Via San Felice, 24 - Bologna (BO)  

Exhibition opening hours
From 5 March to 19 July 2026
Thursday – Friday – Saturday – Sunday – Public holidays: 10:00 – 20:00
Monday – Tuesday – Wednesday: Closed

SPECIAL OPENINGS:

• 5 April 2026 - Easter Sunday
• 6 April 2026 - Easter Monday
• 25 April 2026 - Liberation Day Saturday
• 1 May 2026 - Labour Day Friday
• 10 May 2026 - Mother's Day Sunday
• 1 and 2 June 2026 - Republic Day Monday and Tuesday

Ticket office

• Full price: €16.00
• Reduced price: €14.00
• Reduced price for children aged 7 to 12: €6.00
• Special reduced price for schools: €6.00
• Reduced price for groups (min. 15 people): €14.00
• Free for children under 7, people with disabilities with a certificate of over 75%, licensed tour guides, accredited journalists, I.C.O.M. members.
• Open ticket: €18.00
• Event-only ticket: €5.00
• Return ticket to the exhibition: €8.00
• Reduced price for partners, university students, Card Cultura, Bologna Welcome Card: €13.00

Information and advance sales
www.mostrasaulleiter.it
info@mostrasaulleiter.it   

Contact Vertigo Syndrome

• Phone: + 39 351 6560343
• E-mail: info@vertigosyndrome.it
• Website: www.vertigosyndrome.it
• Facebook: @vertigosyndrome
• Instagram: vertigo_syndrome_

Press Office
STUDIO ESSECI - Sergio Campagnolo
Phone. 049 663499 - www.studioesseci.net
Contact person Simone Raddi - simone@studioesseci.net  

SATISFIED OR REFUNDED: Visitors who are dissatisfied with the exhibition will be entitled to a full refund of the ticket price.