To restate facts already known, Levitt was born in 1913, the daughter of May and Sam
Levitt, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who ran a wholesale knit-goods business. She grew
up fully assimilated, with two brothers; her brother William later married her friend and
collaborator, the artist Janice Loeb and was associate producer for her film The Quiet
One.
Levitt began photographing in 1931, and around 1936 met Henri Cartier-Bresson and began to see that photographs could be freed from the social agenda that pervaded that decade. She met Walker Evans and James Agee in 1938, sat with Evans on the subway as he photographed passengers unaware, borrowed Evans's camera and briefly his style, and between 1937 and 1940 broke through with her own vision and firmly staked her territory. (It is at least interesting to note a few photographs by Evans dated 1938 where he works with a hand-held 35mm camera on 61st street in New York, making very Levitt-like images. It would take a good deal of sleuthing to determine who was chicken and who was egg, if that could or should even be done.)
After a brief trip to photograph in Mexico in 1941, Levitt decided to remain in New York and so produced her life's work there. As much as anything, that work tells about Levitt herself, famous for her reluctance to travel, her self reliance, perseverance, rigorous, critical mind and sensibility that is like no other.
Levitt began working in the film industry in various capacities in the 1940s, first splicing film for Luis Buñuel's editor and continuing on to make her own films, collaborating with Loeb, Agee, Richard Bagley and
Levitt began photographing in 1931, and around 1936 met Henri Cartier-Bresson and began to see that photographs could be freed from the social agenda that pervaded that decade. She met Walker Evans and James Agee in 1938, sat with Evans on the subway as he photographed passengers unaware, borrowed Evans's camera and briefly his style, and between 1937 and 1940 broke through with her own vision and firmly staked her territory. (It is at least interesting to note a few photographs by Evans dated 1938 where he works with a hand-held 35mm camera on 61st street in New York, making very Levitt-like images. It would take a good deal of sleuthing to determine who was chicken and who was egg, if that could or should even be done.)
After a brief trip to photograph in Mexico in 1941, Levitt decided to remain in New York and so produced her life's work there. As much as anything, that work tells about Levitt herself, famous for her reluctance to travel, her self reliance, perseverance, rigorous, critical mind and sensibility that is like no other.
Levitt began working in the film industry in various capacities in the 1940s, first splicing film for Luis Buñuel's editor and continuing on to make her own films, collaborating with Loeb, Agee, Richard Bagley and
Photograph from Helen Levitt by Helen Levitt, published by powerHouse Books, 2008
Sidney Meyers on The Quiet One (1948) and with Loeb and Agee on In the Street (1953) before returning to still photography in 1959, in color no less (only eight images survive from this early period). Her groundbreaking color work was shown MoMA in 1974, two years before William Eggleston's exhibit there. With a career spanning several decades, now at the age of 95 she no longer photographs. There is only so much one can do.
enlarge left page textreduce left page text
A Brief Chat with Helen Levitt and a Few Other Things — part one
/ 12
/ 12
that page does not exist
enlarge right page textreduce right page text
