So I Went To See Saul Leiter's Work Hanging On A Wall In Amsterdam
... and then decided to have a go myself. Promising, is the verdict ...
Hi. So, yeah, I had a free afternoon so what better way to spend it, in the absence of any football thanks to the insufferable international break, than sitting on the sofa in my shorts, watching re-runs of Call The Midwife, drinking too much coffee and eating way too much cheese.
Only kidding.
I dusted off the X-Pro 3, threw in a spare battery for good luck (I have 4 spare batteries buy only once have I ever used all 4 in a single day), and got myself on the tram down to Amsterdam and FOAM, which possibly stands for something but I’m not sure what.
FOAM is one of two photo galleries in Amsterdam, the other being Huize Marseille which currently has a great exhibition by the Séeberger brothers and early 20th century photography.
Anyway, FOAM, and the Saul Leiter expo. I have to confess, I’m not that familiar with his work (and I call myself a photographer) but a quick Google search prior to departure had me going “ah, right, that was him so”.
FOAM is a great place to go if you’re into photography and you have a spare hour or two. It’s a warren of rooms and anterooms split across, well, it’s hard to say but possibly about four levels, with industrial staircases (very narrow …) and a nice wee café. At the entrance there’s a wee bookshop where they had a copy of Robert Frank’s The Americans which I was very tempted to buy, only it was €55 and I have four kids and mortgage, so that was left behind.
Before you get to Saul though, it was worth seeing an amazing gallery on the ground floor showcasing American-Armenian photographer, Diana Markosian, and her work called Father, which follows Markosian's journey to reconnect with her estranged father through images, family photos, and film. It was really impressed with this, the grainy black and white images. combined with lovely video and some plaintive gentle piano music. A touching story of a woman trying to reconnect with her father. Worth the price of admission alone.
After that, it was onto Saul. I was happy to see that many of the images I found online were on display, but I was surprised at how small they were. For most of them I had to get take my glasses off and get real close. It was mostly his black and white stuff, and quite a few of his paintings (not a huge fan of those) but the colour images that were there had these beautiful rich colours that just popped out of the image.
There was also Sakir Khader’s powerful solo exhibition, The Day of Farewell by Palestinian-Dutch photographer Sakir Khader. In 2024, Khader became the first Palestinian photographer to be selected for the prestigious Magnum Photos collective. His work powerfully captures the delicate and often blurred line between life and death, offering a haunting yet deeply human perspective.
All in all I was there for about an hour and half, taking in the images and feeling inspired to give it a go myself.
I think that Saul Leiter's work feels like stepping into a quiet, dreamlike world where everyday moments become poetic, and beatiful. He used soft colors, reflections, and layers—like looking through a rainy window or catching a glimpse of someone just as they disappear around a corner. There’s an intimacy to his work, as if you're seeing the city not through his eyes, but through his emotions. Instead of focusing on big, dramatic scenes, he found beauty in small, overlooked details—like a red umbrella in the snow or a silhouette framed by a fogged-up taxi window. His work is less about telling a clear story and more about evoking a mood. Most of his photos feature people, but they’re not the main subject, they’re one element in a wider canvas of light, and shape, and mood.
On a side note, seeing Saul’s work really made me want to put on some 70’s Tom Waits, think Heartattack and Vine, Small Change or Nighthawks at the Diner. Also, I wondered if Diana Markosian’s exhibition would be as powerful if, instead of the sad melancholic piano music, they put on some Katrina and The Waves.
For the shy retiring photographer like me, that opens up whole new words of possibilities - trying to capture the city and the environment around us not by directly pointing a camera at something, or someone, but hinting at the life beyond through careful framing, using reflections and light to create a more mysterious, layered image. It reminds me a lot of the amazing work of Karen Schlotke who does a lot of that to beatiful effect.
Heading out of FOAM, I took out the camera (with the 35mm f1.4) and tried a few shots.
Needs a bit of work, but I kinda get the idea. It’s something I’ll be looking our for next time I hit the streets.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking from the Rokin to Dam Square where there was another Pro-Palestine demo on. I used to photograph a lot of these, but I don’t really bother anymore - I don’t always feel that comfortable, because I look so out of place. I fear (and here I go again, filling in what other people think) that they’ll think that I have no business being there and that I’m probably with the AIVD (the Dutch version of M15) and so not to be trusted. Or something like that.
I did get this shot, which I quite liked.
After that, back to Central Station and a trip on the ferry to the other side where I got this one that, again, I quite liked.
It’s shot at f1.4 and the focus is debatable but again, the framing and the mood kinda puts this into the Saul folder.
So, all in all quite a nice photo day. I saw some amazing photography and felt inspired for the first time in a long time to try something different, something that feels like it could meet my needs to do street, without the in-yer-face style that I just don’t like, or feel comfortable with.
I took 607 photo’s. Not a bad catch, but a quick glimpse at the rest tells me it’s mostly old plastic bottles and driftwood. I’ll take a better look tomorrow and hopefully there’s some nice cod in there [that’s an extremely tortuous analogy, even for you - Ed.]
Not quite sure how to end this, so this is me putting the phone do{tuuuuuut}