Saul Leiter was an American photographer and painter whose early work in the 1940s and 1950s contributed immensely to what became known as the New York school of photography. Leiter’s work in photography was based on his philosophy that there were always extraordinary things happening within your immediate vicinity. He once stated that:

“I take photographs in my neighbourhood. I think that mysterious things happen in familiar places. We don’t always need to run to the other end of the world.”

Seamus Brennan is someone who embodies Leiter’s philosophy on photography, and who also creates dream-like images from street scenes in Leith which most of us would probably never notice. Seamus was born in Sligo in Ireland, but has made his home in Leith for over 17 years. Initially, his interest in photography was influenced by music and taking live images of bands, but when the covid epidemic hit, something changed. Like most people who had been forcibly confined indoors, the urge to get outside and onto the streets whenever possible became paramount. But for Seamus, something else clicked into gear.

He began to observe images and people which compulsively, he simply had to capture. Colours, light, dark, shapes, architecture, and people going about their normally unnoticed business became his obsession. Moments in time which could never be replicated and which he knew he just had to capture. Speaking to Seamus, it’s obvious that these moments contributed to him overcoming the claustrophobia of the covid experience, and allowing him to breathe anew. He is unequivocally certain of one thing:

“I didn’t find photography, photography found me.”

Armed only with his iPhone, he has set about documenting the seemingly everyday in and around Leith, and transforming those images into ethereal and spiritual heartbeats which only happen once, but thanks to him, will endure in our mind’s eye forever.

It would be easy to imagine that any one of us could wander around our local streets and capture such extraordinary images, but it takes a special kind of talent and piercing attentiveness to the moment to see the absolute beauty of a shop doorway in the twilight, or the shadow of a lone human projected onto a wall, completely lost in their own thoughts.

That’s Seamus’s talent, he isn’t just taking photographs; he’s connected to every dream which is playing out in our neighbourhood every day.

Saul Leiter would heartily approve.

@seamiesanchez on Instagra