all images by © Helen Levitt
"It would be mistaken to suppose that any of the best photography is come at by intellection; it is like all art, essentially the result of an intuitive process, drawing on all that the artist is rather than on anything he thinks, far less theorizes about."--Helen Levitt (1913-2009)
To a 21st Century audience Helen Levitt's legacy is under appreciated. While well known and admired in her day, including a solo show at age 30 at the MoMA in 1943, this new publication, Helen Levitt, from Thames & Hudson USA offers a satisfying corrective. At last we have a monograph that draws on Levitt's entire archive, including her significant contribution to color photography, which deserves our renewed attention.
Helen Levitt was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1913. The daughter of Russian-Jewish parents, Levitt grew up with progressive, left-leaning values. Drawn to the arts, Levitt left High School early to embark on a trade/career as a working photographer, first learning her technical chops at a commercial photography studio owned by family friends in the Bronx. She would later study at the famed leftist photo & film documentary collective, Photo League, where in 1935 she met Henri Cartier-Bresson, recently back from Mexico. Her friendship with Cartier-Bresson inspired her to purchase a Leica camera, and to renew her dedication to becoming an independent photographer: “And then I saw pictures of Cartier-Bresson and realized that photography could be an art – and that made me ambitious.”
Levitt's work from 1938-1942 is her most celebrated. These are her street images of life (especially children) in the Bronx, Harlem, the Lower East Side, Hell's Kitchen and Brooklyn for which she is most remembered, including her book, "A Way of Seeing." Levitt's uncanny ability to tap into the quotidian and to reflect the evanescent beauty in the everyday make her black & white images as appealing today as they were in her time. Her 1948 film, "In the Street," done in collaboration with friend and writer James Agee, reveals this egalitarian eye.
Never satisfied, in the late 1950's Levitt eschewed black & white photography to pursue color photography. Her third attempt at a Guggenheim fellowship proved fruitful. The fellowship allowed her to explore the possibilities of color photography (and dye transfer printing) long before luminaries like William Eggleston impacted our idea of color photography in the 1970’s.
With illuminating essays, especially one by master color photographer, Joel Sternfeld--who knew and photographed alongside Levitt--this new monograph brings us up to date on why Levitt's groundbreaking work still matters. Helen Levitt's intuitive approach and respect for everyday people remind us that it is not the mind, but the heart that sees.--Lane Nevares











