New York
Helen Lewitt
New York, ca. 1940
© Estate of Helen Levitt. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied without prior written consent, 2021
© Fundación MAPFRE COLLECTIONS
Technique
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Dimensions of printed area: 31,8 x 21,4 cm (12 1/2 x 8 7/16 in.)
Paper size: 35,3 x 27,8 cm (13 7/8 x 10 15/16 in.)
Inventory
FM000603
Subject / Document
Later copy
Description
Influenced by the work of Cartier-Bresson, she bought herself a Leica which became her greatest ally. Unlike modern photographers and documentary photographers Levitt’s images always attempt to bear witness to reality. Her work reflects what life was like on the streets as a kind of modern meeting place. At a time where no were no television sets (especially in the houses of the poorest in society) and no air conditioning the streets become a communal living room. In the foreword to his book A Way Of Seeing, James Agee defines her work as «lyrical photography». Levitt’s streets and children remind us of the horizon. This book became instrumental in her career: finished in 1946, it was published almost twenty years later in 1965 and is a living and paradigmatic testimony to her photography.
Titled, dated and signed in pencil on the recto. Illus: A Way of Seeing, p. 21; Helen Levitt, p. 19; Crosstown, p.31
Levitt, Helen. Crosstown. New York: PowerHouse Books, 2001
Levitt, Helen. Here and There. Nueva York: PowerHouse Books, 2003
Levitt, Helen, James Agee. A Way of Seeing. Nueva York: Horizon Press, 1981 (1ª ed. 1965)
Levitt, Helen, James Oles. Helen Levitt: Mexico City. Nueva York: Center for Documentary Studies con W.W. Norton & Co, 1997 (1ª ed. 1941)
Phillips, Sandra S., Maria Morris Hambourg, Helen Levitt. Helen Levitt. San Francisco, California: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1991
