Tokyo Exhibition Reopens: “Forever Saul Leiter…Once More!” (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) (Copy) ( (Copy)

Love to Robert Benton

Robert Benton in 1959. Photograph by Saul Leiter.

Writer and director Robert Benton, who passed away on May 11 at age 92, was one of Saul Leiter’s best friends. The two met in 1957, when Leiter brought his color slides to Esquire magazine, where Benton was assistant to art director Henry Wolf. “The receptionist called to say that there was an artist wanting to see Henry,” Benton remembered at Leiter’s 2014 memorial in New York. “And when I glanced up, there, standing in the doorway, was an unmade bed. That was how I met Saul Leiter, one of the great photographers of our age.” Fast friends, Benton and Leiter shared many adventures over the years. More recently, Benton was an inaugural member of the board of the Saul Leiter Foundation, and wrote the afterword in Steidl’s 2018 book Saul Leiter: In My Room.

We’ll miss you, dear Benton.

---