In His Room

BY: Jes Zurell

The place to which naughty children are banished becomes a cavern of safety, the place where we first explore ourselves is the place that reveals the most. It’s where you come first and where you first came. It’s the bedroom, and photographer Saul Leiter extends an invitation to his.

The Howard Greenberg Gallery’s new show, Saul Leiter: In My Room, opened on May 10 and runs through June 30. The show surveys seedy mid-century scenes – the type that films of the same era omitted. With each delicate nipple and every strategic shadow, the show speaks as much about what is secret as it testifies to what you may have already guessed. It’s equal parts confessional and pinkie promise, a love affair between lenses and skin. The black-and-white photographs suggest sex, but also something more.

In rooms where love is a verb and sex is a scent that hangs in the air, Leiter’s photographs express personal space, something we stretch and compress, thrust forward and back with determined balance. What we want to know is what Leiter must have said to find himself in such sensuous company in the first place.