Helen Levitt

Helen Levitt (born 1913-08-31, Brooklyn, New York) is an American photographer. She is particularly noted for "street photography" around New York City, and has been called "the most celebrated and least known photographer of her time."cite journal |last=Strauss |first=David Levi |title=Helen Levitt: International Center for Photgraphy - exhibition |year=1997 |month=October |journal=Artforum |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_n2_v36/ai_20357665]

Levitt grew up in Brooklyn. Dropping out of high school, she taught herself photography while working for a commercial photographer. While teaching some classes in art to children in 1937, Levitt became intrigued with the transitory chalk drawings that were part of the New York children's street culture of the time. She purchased a Leica camera and began to photograph these works as well as the children who made them. The resulting photographs were ultimately published in 1987 as "In The Street: chalk drawings and messages, New York City 1938–1948".cite book|last=Hambourg |first=Maria Morris |year=1991 |chapter=Helen Levitt: A Life in Part |editor=Phillips, Sandra S. |title=Helen Levitt |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |pages=45-63 |ISBN=0918471222]

She associated with Walker Evans 1938 and 1939. In 1943 Edward Steichen curated her first solo exhibition "Helen Levitt: Photographs of Children" at the Museum of Modern Art. She subsequently began to find press work as a documentary photographer.Fact|date=August 2008

In the late 1940s Levitt made two documentary films with Janice Loeb and James Agee: "In the Street" (1948) and "The Quiet One" (1948). Levitt, along with Loeb and Sidney Meyers, received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of "The Quiet One". Levitt was active in filmmaking for nearly 25 years; her final film credit is as an editor for John Cohen's documentary "The End of an Old Song" (1972). [cite web |last=Mathews |first=Scott |title=John Cohen in Eastern Kentucky: Documentary Expression and the Image of Roscoe Halcomb During the Folk Revival |work=Southern Spaces |date=2008-08-06 |url=http://www.southernspaces.org/contents/2008/matthews/1a.htm] Levitt's other film credits include the cinematography on "The Savage Eye" (1960), [Jackson, Benjamin T. (1960). "The Savage Eye"," "Film Quarterly", Vol. 13, No. 4. (Summer, 1960), pp. 53-57.] which was produced by Ben Maddow, Meyers, and Joseph Strick, and also as an assistant director for Strick and Maddow's film version of Genet's play "The Balcony" (1963). In her biographical essay, Maria Hambourg writes that Levitt, "has all but disinherited this part of her work."

In 1959 and 1960, Levitt received two Guggenheim Foundation grants to take color photographs on the streets of New York, and she returned to still photography. In 1965 she published her first major collection, "A Way of Seeing". [cite book|last=Levitt |first=Helen |title=A Way of Seeing: Third Edition |publisher=Duke University Press |date=1989 |ISBN=9780822310051] Much of her work in color from the 1960s was stolen in a 1970 burglary of her East 13th Street apartment. The remaining photos, and others taken in the following years, can be seen in the 2005 book "Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt". [cite book |last=Levitt |first=Helen |date=2005 |title=Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt |publisher=powerHouse Books |ISBN= 9781576872529] In 1976 she was a Photography Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts.

She has remained active as a photographer for nearly 70 years and still lives in New York City. New York's "visual poet laureate" is notoriously private and publicity shy.

Published collections of Levitt's photographs

*cite book|last=Levitt |first=Helen |coauthors=Agee, James |title=A Way of Seeing: Third Edition |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1989 |origyear=1965 |isbn=9780822310051
*cite book|last=Levitt |first=Helen |title=In the Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages, New York City, 1938-1948 |year=1987 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=0822307715
*cite book|year=1991 |last=Levitt |first=Helen |coauthors=Hambourg, Maria Morris and Phillips, Sandra S. |editor=Phillips, Sandra S. |title=Helen Levitt |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |isbn=0918471222
*cite book |last=Levitt |first=Helen |coauthors=Oles, James |year=1997 |title=Helen Levitt: Mexico City |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0393045498
*cite book |last=Levitt |first=Helen |coauthors=Prose, Francine |year=2001 |title=Crosstown |publisher=powerHouse Books |isbn=1576871037
*cite book |last=Levitt |first=Helen |coauthors=Gopnik, Adam |title=Here and There |year=2004 |publisher=powerHouse Books |isbn=1576871657
*cite book |last=Levitt |first=Helen |coauthors=Szarkowski, John |year=2005 |title=Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt |publisher=powerHouse Books |isbn= 9781576872529
*cite book|title=Helen Levitt |first=Helen |last=Levitt |coauthors=Evans, Walker |publisher=powerHouse Books |year=2008 |month=March |isbn=9781576874295

References

External links

* [http://www.lensculture.com/levitt.html 24 images] at the lensculture website.
* [http://www.laurencemillergallery.com/levitt_vgraffiti.htm Online portfolio] and [http://www.laurencemillergallery.com/levittbio.htm biography] at the Laurence Miller Gallery website.
*Block, Melissa (2002). [http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/jan/levitt/020117.levitt.html "Helen Levitt's Indelible Eye"] , audio interview from the "All Things Considered" radio program, 2002-01-17, National Public Radio.
*Boxer, Sarah (2004). " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07E3D61738F93BA35757C0A9629C8B63 Capturing Little Dramas With a Click; Helen Levitt's Pictures Speak for Themselves] ," "The New York Times", 2004-04-08.
*cite journal|last=Dikant |first=Thomas |title=Helen Levitt: 10 Photographs |journal=Philologie in Netz |year=2003 |volume=25 |pages=1-30 |url=http://web.fu-berlin.de/phin/phin25/p25t1.htm Critical study of ten of Levitt's photographs. Dikant also discusses the influences on Levitt, including Henri Cartier Bresson, Ben Shahn, and Walker Evans.
*imdb name|1844803. Note that several of Levitt's credits are presently (January 2008) erroneously ascribed to Helen Slote Levitt.