Helen Levitt

Helen Levitt’s classic presentation of New York street photography in a new expanded and revised edition

Ever since it was first published in 1965, Helen Levitt’s collection of photographs taken on the streets of 1940s New York City has been revered as a classic of its genre. Made in collaboration with writer James Agee, who provided the book’s introduction, A Way of Seeing was published twice more with modifications during Levitt’s lifetime. This volume seeks to provide a definitive edition of the book with oversight from Levitt’s former assistant Marvin Hoshimo, who has taken pains to include the best available prints and negatives of Levitt’s images.

Returned to its original compact size, this edition contains all 50 original photographs in addition to several other images meant to represent Levitt’s later understanding of herself as an artist and visual storyteller. Levitt’s photography has stood the test of time and now provides compelling insight into the daily lives of New York’s youngest denizens long after they have grown up.

About the Authors

Helen Levitt(1913-2009) was born and raised in New York City. She began to take street pictures in the mid-1930's and had a solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943. Another MoMA presentation, in 1974, was one of the first major museum exhibitions of serious colour photography anywhere in the world. During her lifetime her pictures appeared in numerous group shows from The Family of Man to Documenta X, and she was the subject of retrospective exhibitions by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Photographer's Gallery in London, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Deputación Provincial de Granada, New York's International Center of Photography, Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Sprengel Museum Hannover, and Foam Amsterdam. She published seven collections of her works: Crosstown, Helen Levitt, Here and There, In the Street, Mexico City, Slide Show, and A Way of Seeing.

James Agee (1909-1955) was a staff writer for Fortune and Time, film critic for The Nation, and later a screenwriter. His major works include Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, A Death in the Family, and the screenplays for two of the most important American films of the 1950's: Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter and John Huston's The African Queen.