New York, 1979

Helen Levitt

1979

Photograph depicting young boy outdoors leaning on set of stairs looking up while small dog sits on sidewalk next to stair wall.
Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Register
Already have an account?
Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Helen Levitt

1913–2009

American photographer Helen Levitt studied and worked with Walker Evans in the late 1930s. In the 1940s, she began to photograph children in New York City, producing the black-and-white street photography for which she is best known. In 1943, Edward Steichen curated her first solo exhibition, Helen Levitt: Photographs of Children, at the Museum of Modern Art. Later in the decade, she and James Agee collaborated on two films about New York street life. In 1959–1960, two Guggenheim Foundation grants made it possible for Levitt to become one of the first street photographers to work in color. Much of this work was stolen in a burglary of her apartment, but the remaining items, along with other color photographs taken in later years, were published in Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt (2005).

You may also like

Photograph depicting pedestal of large sculpture with people standing around its base.
Tooltip info icon

Statue of Liberty

Best known for his New York City street photography, Speier was always on the lookout for unexpected and often humorous juxtapositions of incongruous elements to photograph. In this scene, visitors to…
View Source

I Saw My Father Drowning

I saw my father drowning In surging days. His weak hand gave a last white flutter In the distance— And he was gone. I kept on alone Along the shore, A boy still, With small, thin legs, And have…
View Source