The Jotter - issue 18
“Seeing is a neglected enterprise.”
Saul Leiter
What’s it like to work with one of your heroes? With someone who has inspired you? Someone who has influenced the way you see?
This month I have found out…
Since stumbling across his colour photos over a decade ago, Saul Leiter has inspired, influenced and fascinated me.
I return to his photobooks time and time again. Marvelling at the colour, the unexpected composition and the painterly atmosphere of his photos. He is (perhaps) my favourite photographer of all time.
This month we launched the new Saul Leiter Foundation website. To celebrate, more than one of this month’s links will be Saul Leiter related. I hope you will forgive this indulgence.
Onwards
Andrew
01, Work
The Saul Leiter Foundation maintains an archive of Saul Leiter’s artwork. They are unearthing a treasure trove of prints, slides, negatives, and paintings. To help them spread the word, we created their new website using the design of his seminal book, Early Color, as the starting point.
02, How a piece of chewing gum can mean so much.
Warren Ellis, chief accomplice to Nick Cave, has been involved in two of the most lauded albums of recent times - Ghosteen and Carnage.
A Nina Simone concert in 1999 had a profound effect on him. “It was one of those rare events after which nobody was going to leave the same as they walked in.”
03, A game
Terms & Conditions Apply: a game about the deviousness of websites.
See if you can answer the 29 questions without agreeing to give your data away…
04, Quote.
04.01
“I think that mysterious things happen in familiar places. We don't always need to run to the other end of the world.”
04.02
“I do like photographs where sometimes everything's lost and in some corner something's going on and you're not quite sure what it is.”
Saul Leiter
05, Television
The recents series on Channel 4, The Secret World Of… is a nostalgic look back at Britain's biggest snacks. It’s about new product development, marketing and the competitive spirit between arch rivals.
It was a trip down memory lane for me. Two people I worked with at Thorntons as well as Paul Weiland (Bradford on Avon resident and director of the infamous Walkers Crisps adverts), are interviewed.
06, Marketing
Marketing Examples generously share examples of businesses who succeed by taking a different approach.
07, Community
I’m looking forward to this exhibition and auction of original works of art in support of a new skatepark in Bradford on Avon.
08, Talented friends.
It was wonderful seeing our dear friend, James Dorman, and his jolly good Lunar Ensemble perform at Bristol Cathedral. The music was composed by James for the evening and is one of a series of events celebrating the Museum of the Moon installation at the Cathedral.
09, Book.
Forever Saul Leiter is a very good introduction to his photography. It was first published in Japan to accompany an exhibition at the Bunkamura Museum, Tokyo in 2020. A UK version is being published in October.
Thank you for reading this month’s Jotter. The next one will bloom into life at elevenses on Friday 24th September. In the meantime, I hope you have some fun things planned and if you see something which inspires you, please do share it.
Onwards
Andrew
“When burdened by the feeling that there are too many photographs in the world, I ask myself if there are too many flowers.”