Thank you all so much for watching, I hope the video was helpful in anyway and you left inspired ✨ If you'd like to support my work & the channel you can do so by grabbing a print from the shop: thopper.uk/store
Saul Leiter is an absolute genius and while I was listening to you talk about the personal style of each photographer, I thought that the style of the greatest photographers has to do with rarity. The greatest photographers don't really have successors. They open and close a path. Copying them is a dead end. Nevertheless they can of course be inspiring. It seems to me that every artistically ambitious photographer should be aware of this requirement. I like the fact that "Saul Leiter" sounds like "Soul Lighter", but maybe there is a big difference for English speakers that I don't hear because I am French 🙃
Morning coffee, comfy chair with a view (sunrise/autumn colours) and another delightful T. Hopper video … well done. I’m rediscovering photography with my new Fuji X100V … so much fun … I even took it sailing … there’s a unique perspective! Thanks for your easy going, informative and inspirational videos.
Sounds like a lovely scenery, thank you so much for watching, I appreciate it and glad you're following my advice when I say grab a drink and make yourself comfortable in my videos ahaha
Hello Tania, I'd like to thank you for this type of videos which provide a great understanding and analysis of the photography's universe. Keep going like this and good luck ;)
I hope you keep making these videos! It feels like your insights and production values keep evolving....looking forward to what you do next. Thank you also for reminding me of Leiter's work: such brave colour and composition - they point to creative doors I hadn't thought about. opening. For me, his embrace of the black shapes that intrude on the frame elevates the work. Similar in one way to Harry Gruyaert's pictures of India.
Another great video. Thank you! I really love Leiter's impressionistic use of texture, color, and reflection. I find myself drawn to similar aspects of image. When you talk about how these formal aspects make the scene/image more than it is or transcend the documentary aspects, I resonate with that. I feel like his juxtaposition of abstract blur with detail (texture) or low color with color pop / contrast, evokes a state of vision processing in me that forces me to hold all of the forces in my mind at once to reconcile them. And this multi-dimensional juxtaposition is deeply satisfying for my mind and eye. It reminds me of how a great image often leads the eye around the image, instead of being static, but in this case Leiter often uses these impressionistic complexities to get the same effect in me. Anyhow, thank you again.
Really good insight Minoo, I also agree in particular with what you say about being visually satisfying and that thought of how great images often guide or eyes and not the other way around or making them being static, thank you for watching!
Good video! As in music or any other artform stay true to your self and your personal style will evolve and grow naturally. Shoot from the heart and don't be concerned whether other people will like it. It's whether you like it or not that's important. Btw we've lost a lot of great photographers in the past few months ... RIP Douglas Kirkland, William Klein, Ron Galella, Patrick Demarchelier, Fred Lyon. ☮🙏
Thanks for this one. The segment starting at 5:20, "when a photo becomes more..." is very insightful. I replayed it five or six times. He's an interesting character for sure. I've generally dismissed him as yet another NYC street photographer...but the impressionism you mention does make his work standout. I'll have to give it another look. Thanks!
That’s amazing Brad I’m glad I was able to “convince” you to have a second look, I feel like there’s a lot to learn from him trust me, even if it’s just about inspiration ;) and yes that segment gave me a lot to think about, maybe it deserves another video in the future :)
Thank you for your insightful videos . I've enjoyed and learned a lot from them . Just like in music , painting and literature - there is so much beauty to be found in photography . I especially like Fan Ho , Ernst Haas and Saul Leiter - and Stevie Wonder , Paul McCartney , Duke Ellington , Tchaikovsky , Saul Bellow and Fernando Pessoa . Again , thank you for your excellent videos . I look forward to more good stuff !
Thank you so much Elizabeth! And I know and love most of the people you mentioned there they’re all in one way or another poets of their craft (I mean Pessoa was a writer and poet but you know what I mean :))
I think you’ve said it best in your last statement. If you’re chasing a style or recognition you’re chasing the wrong thing. It has to stem from a sense of passion for street photography or whichever form of photography you do. A smaller aspect would be the simplification of your gear, i.e, shoot with one camera and lens but all the rest is a pure internal expression of the art.
The book just arrived today to compliment my other Saul Leiter books and love it. It makes me wish I could have wandered the streets with him for a day back in the late 1950’s.
I understand the feeling, his photos make me wish I could go back in time or somehow transport myself there, mid-century NYC was something else :) glad you got the book!
Really enjoyed your video and and the way you caught how I feel about Saul Leiter. I am astounded at the images he produced at a time when his approach was revolutionary. For me he is a giant. In Tomas Leach's film "In No Great Hurry" he makes little of the fact that he decided to photograph "his way", no matter what the price. However, that price was very significant. Thanks.
I enjoyed your presentation very much thank you. I do wonder what post production facilities Saul had back in his day I presume it was before the light room or the works we see direct from the camera?
Really enjoyed this, in part because I am drawn to his colorful, abstracted, impressionist images. Though they are very different from my own photography, I saw a connection in how we see the world and produce images that are abstract (well, for my urban geometry photos), just in different ways. About my style, or aesthetic, I never thought of developing it, but it was other photographers/artists and/or admirers of photography who made me realize I have an overall artistic standpoint, one which I tweak a bit depending on my subject matter and the passing of time, since I am constantly learning and reworking and (hopefully) refining what I create, all while listening to the images themselves. And about emulating others, I never have consciously thought of doing so, yet I strongly embrace certain visual artist's work as influences, influences which I rarely ever think about consciously while I am photographing or processing my photos, but whose aesthetic I know I am enamored with and which I keep returning to for visual sustenance, as it were. (Sorry to get so deep and artsy...) Finally, a great quote about style that I keep in mind often: Someone said once, I read this somewhere, that style is a product of your limitations. Emmylou Harris (legendary country singer-songwriter) on Tavis Smiley, 04-20-11 That made so much sense to me, especially in the context of the interview where she discussed being creative and exploring/expanding her creativity within her limited vocal range. Working on recurring visual themes of mine and finding, often organically, unpremeditated ways of expanding what I can capture and create visually, is an adventure that brings me little anxiety but a whole lotta joy. And yes, part of my exploration of my limitations is accepting the possibility of my style changing, the subject matter that I am interested in changing. But I do not fret about taking myself outside my comfort zone. Doing photography is always an adventure with huge risks opt failure but always a payoff of satisfaction, joy. Anyway, thank you.
Hello. A very beautiful beginning of the video and I watched it to the end. I recently started watching your video and signed up today. You are now my favorite guide to the world of photography. I live in Russia and I apologize for my English :)) You would really like your hair gathered at the back of your head ! And you take beautiful photos.!
Thank you so much, glad you subscribed today, welcome to the channel and I hope you keep enjoying the content and leave inspired :) all the best and thank you for your kind words!
Love this stuff its very similar to when i gave my 6 yr old niece a compact digital point and shoot for a day out around town. I must say she did take a disproportionately large number in mcdonalds lol
Another great video. I have thought about panning and using slow shutter speeds, but do I want to burn up film as expensive as it is now - especially with street situations? I generally like shooting landscapes because I have never really felt comfortable, especially now with this electronic paranoic feeling subjects are embedded with. I still keep trying.
This was fantastic! Thank you for introducing us to Saul Leiter. His imagery and your choice of music instantly sucked me in. "Success isn't about numbers or being recognized, it's about personal contentment." -T.Hopper 👆 NAILED IT! Looking forward to seeing your future videos and following your work! -Matty V clixpix
Thank you for yet another dope synopsis of an amazing photographer! The music definitely feels like a SL soundtrack! Where can I find this track/artist?
Of huge number (more than tens of thousands) of walking around photos, centered on Manhattan and in a few cities, I've only taken a few that approach what S. L. did. Lessons to be learned that are not easy at all.
How I liked your video Thank you very much. for me it is a unique reference I like his work 400% he remains the best on his artistic and romantic sense, thanks to the monochrome colors
This book is so beautiful. I got it as soon as it came out. But the matte black pages get so many fingerprints that I feel like I need to handle it with gloves
Bravo et merci de France pour me faire découvrir cet extraordinaire photographe. J'ai adoré aussi votre intro, elle colle superbement aux photos quel est ce musicien? Mille merci pour ce bon moment.
Yes! But at least he got to be interviewed and see the growing appreciation for his work unlike Maier who was a bit more recluse but all in all amazing photographers 🙌
It's not my intention to sound pretentious or mean, but I sense that sound isn't constant in your videos. Sometimes I'm watching something else and I have to really crank the volume up in order to hear you. Usually voice is at -6db and most videos everywhere follow that rule. Again, I hope I'm not being disrespectful, I just reallt enjoy the channel and I thought on making a constructive comment. Greetings
Hey César! Please don’t think it’s offensive, it’s not at all and I appreciate the constructive feedback I’ve been changing the sound recording setup recently and this in particular was my first video with a Shure system so I had a few ups and downs with the recording and mastering, so I do apologise for this not so smooth transition! I will definitely pay more attention and try to improve, I appreciate your words and thank you for being so respectful and of course for watching the video :)
I wonder how many more great photographers are out there who take photo's for the love of taking photo's but to never display their works and never get the recognition, ever.
Saul Leiter had at least the merit to show that not only AF speed, number of raw shoots / sec and sharpness of a lens to watch if pixels in a 300% cropped image are perfect, matters 🙂
