Helen Levitt was one of the most prolific street photographers of the 20th Century, venturing daily into New York City neighborhoods like Spanish Harlem and the lower East Side to capture the drama and vitality of the streets.
Helen Levitt grew up in Brooklyn, and became a self-taught photographer after dropping out of high school. Working some years for a studio photographer, she became intrigued with the children she encountered on the streets, especially so the chalk drawings that were such a part of their culture during the 1930s. She soon bought a Leica and began photographing them on a regular basis.
In 1943 she received her first solo exhibition, curated by Edward Steichen, at the Museum of Modern Art. The show, entitled Helen Levitt: Photographs of Children, helped her to develop her reputation in the field and she began to find abundant work as a documentary photographer.
During the late 1940s, Levitt turned to filmmaking. Her film In The Street (1948), produced with the aid of author and critic James Agee and photographer Janice Loeb, is a an exploration of children’s street culture in Harlem and in many ways an extension of her still photography. As of last year, the film is out of print.
In the same year, Levitt participated as a cinematographer and writer on Sydney Meyers’ film The Quiet One, about an emotionally disturbed African-American boy.
Levitt eventually returned to still photography and received two Guggenheim grants to produce color photographs of New York City street life. Much of the resulting work was stolen from her apartment by burglars in 1970. What remained can be seen in the book Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt (2005).
Helen Levitt remained active in both photography and filmmaking for most of the rest of her life. She passed away quietly in her sleep on March 29 at the age of 95.
The following video is brought to us by DaylightArts and discusses some of the artistic and social impact of her work.
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