Pioneers of Abstraction: Saul Leiter, Ernst Haas, and the Art of Seeing Differently

Abstract photography often begins where literal representation ends. It asks us to look beyond what something is and to consider how it feels, how it’s structured, how light moves through it, or how form alone can speak. At the forefront of this movement were photographers like Saul Leiter and Ernst Haas, who redefined what photography could be, not just a tool for documentation, but a medium for expression, experimentation, and poetry.

Saul Leiter: Painterly Vision in a Concrete World

Saul Leiter was a true visual poet. With a background in painting, he brought a distinct sensitivity to colour, composition, and abstraction that set him apart from many of his contemporaries. Working in New York in the 1940s and ’50s, his photographs stood in stark contrast to the gritty realism of traditional street photography. Instead of focusing on the explicit, Leiter turned his gaze toward the ephemeral; reflections in glass, shadows cast across windows, smears of snow or rain obscuring figures just enough to invite curiosity.

He often shot through windows, using condensation and reflections to blur the boundary between the observer and the observed. His use of colour was subtle, painterly even, with muted reds, soft greens, and off-whites layered into quiet, emotive images that felt more like paintings than photographs. Leiter’s abstract sensibility was not about detachment, but about finding intimacy in the in-between, the overlooked, the momentary.

Ernst Haas: Movement, Colour, and the Energy of Life

While Leiter drifted into softness and quiet, Ernst Haas embraced movement and vivid color with cinematic flair. A photojournalist at heart, Haas used the tools of reportage to create impressionistic, often dreamlike images that defied traditional photographic rules. He was among the first to fully exploit the creative potential of colour film, producing photographs that shimmered with vitality and emotional resonance.

Haas played with slow shutter speeds, motion blur, and unconventional framing to abstract the world around him. A street scene became a rush of streaked light and colour; a bull fight transformed into a blur of gesture and energy. He believed in the image behind the image; the unseen essence of a subject revealed only when its literal form was disrupted.

Both Haas and Leiter were pioneers in seeing differently.

They found abstraction not through manipulation but through perception. Their work wasn’t about distortion, it was about revealing the poetic within the everyday.

A Legacy of Looking Differently

Today, the influence of these visionaries can be felt in countless contemporary photographers who use abstraction to challenge, reframe, and deepen the photographic experience. Whether through colour, texture, movement, or minimalism, the abstract tradition continues to evolve, driven by the same curiosity that Haas and Leiter embodied: a desire to see not just what’s there, but what’s possible.

Their work reminds us that abstraction isn’t about confusion, it’s about distillation. It’s about peeling back the obvious to reveal something more subtle and powerful. In my own work, I like to think about the way they saw: not literally, but emotionally - through fogged windows, reflections, peeling paint, and fleeting light. They taught us that the beauty of abstraction lies in perception.

To explore their work is to rediscover the everyday as a canvas for emotion, mystery, and wonder. And that, perhaps, is abstraction at its finest.