New York
Helen Levitt practiced photography with a small handheld camera on the streets of New York, making tender depictions of ordinary city people, and especially children. The street was a stage for her young subjects, upon which they played games, performed improvisational dramas, and made fantastic, untutored chalk drawings such as this figure with double pupils and a hovering crown. For Levitt, graffiti and children's drawings were present-day emblems of a pre-civilized, magical art, both spontaneous and archetypal.
Artwork Details
- Title: New York
- Artist: Helen Levitt (American, 1913–2009)
- Date: 1939
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 16.1 x 22.9 cm (6 5/16 x 9 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
- Object Number: 1987.1100.75
- Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Helen Levitt
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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