New York
Datec. 1942
Mediumvintage gelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 6 3/16 × 8 13/16 inches (15.7 × 22.4 cm)
Board: 11 × 13 7/16 inches (27.9 × 34.1 cm)
Matted: 16 × 20 inches (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mimi Muray Levitt.
Object number2019.35
Copyright© Film Documents LLC, courtesy Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextHelen Levitt was born in Brooklyn, and New York City remained her home until her passing in 2009. It was there, in 1935, that she met Henri Cartier-Bresson, a defining event in her career. Through her contact with Cartier-Bresson, she began to recognize the power of ordinary events and people. She acquired a Leica hand-held automatic camera, which afforded her the luxury of making pictures instinctively and instantaneously as she strolled the neighborhoods of the city. Thus armed, and with Cartier-Bresson as her muse, she established an approach to photography that was to become her trademark: capturing that moment when a gesture or a glance or a series of poses define the reality of a poetic moment.
