Margit Erb is not a photographer by practice but a pivotal figure in the stewardship of photographic history. As the director of the Saul Leiter Foundation, established in 2014, she has dedicated her career to preserving and interpreting the work of the American photographer and painter Saul Leiter (1923–2013). Her work connects archival scholarship with public engagement, shaping how Leiter’s mid-century color photography is understood today.

Erb’s relationship with Leiter spanned more than eighteen years, during which she served as his close assistant. This prolonged intimacy gave her an unusually deep knowledge of his methods, his vast archive, and the often unreleased photographs he left behind. After his death, she became the principal guardian of his legacy, overseeing cataloguing, exhibitions, and publications. Unlike a typical curator, Erb works directly with the materiality of prints and negatives, and she collaborates closely with publishers and editors to bring Leiter’s work to the public.

Her significant contribution includes co-authoring (with Michael Parillo) the monographs “The Unseen Saul Leiter” and “Saul Leiter: The Centennial Retrospective.” These books draw on archival discoveries to expand the visual record beyond Leiter’s famous early color street scenes, revealing his intimate interiors, meditative still lifes, and experiments with abstraction. They demonstrate Erb’s curatorial approach: contextualizing the images within Leiter’s paintings and his enduring interest in the poetics of the everyday.

Erb’s impact is also felt in the growing critical reassessment of Leiter as a master of atmosphere rather than simply a pioneer of color. She has participated in lectures and interviews—for instance, a talk at the i3 lecture series—that explain his techniques of blur, reflection, and overturn of predictable composition. Her work positions Leiter not as an outlier but as a deliberate artist whose output moves between painting and photography. This balanced, evidence-based perspective has helped shift Leiter’s reputation from cult figure to an essential figure in postwar American art.

For photobook collectors, Erb’s publications are notable for their careful sequencing and archival fidelity, often revealing works never printed before. The collaboration with Steidl, especially for “In My Room”—which Erb discusses in interviews—demonstrates a sensitive integration of image and design. Collectors seeking to understand Leiter beyond his most iconic prints will find these volumes indispensable entry points, offering not only plates but also apparatus—essays, contextual notes, and reproductions of contact sheets—that illuminate the photographer’s process. Erb’s role ensures that the archive continues to be a living source for new scholarship.

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