Woman Photographer Helen Levitt Street Scape Photographer
Helen Levitt was an extraordinary artist. Her work will certainly continue to inspire young photographers. But more over, Helen was capable to connect to city contexts

Street Kids -Cheeky Boy

 
Street Kids with Mirror

Levitt grew up in Brooklyn. Dropping out of high school, she taught herself photography while working for a commercial photographer. While teaching art to children in 1937, Levitt became intrigued with the transitory sidewalk chalk drawings that were part of the New York children's street culture of the time. 

Levitt purchased a Leica camera and began to photograph the children and their street art. The photographs were published "In The Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages, New York City 1938-1948"

Helen Levitt fascination with children's sidewalk art

In 1959 and 1960, Levitt received two Guggenheim Foundation grants to take color photographs on the streets of New York. Much of her work in color from the 1960s was stolen from her East 13th Street apartment.

In 1940s, Levitt made two documentary films with Janice Loeb and James Agee called In the Street (1948) and The Quiet One (1948).

Helen Levitt captures her own empathy for the street kids of New York