Early Black and White The distinctive iconography of Saul Leiter's earliest black and white photographs stems from his profound response to the dynamics of street life in New York City in the late 1940s and early 50s. While his technique borrowed from the immediacy of the photo-documentary, Leiters imagery was generated by subjective and highly individual reactions to the people and places he encountered. It was the mystery of the city that propelled his art, and poignant moments of human experience: he was a Magic Realist with a camera. He tended to work in series, and Early Black and White contains 100 remarkable photographs grouped under ten thematic headings, ranging from the radically innovative to moving urban nostalgia.