Helen Levitt

Helen Levitt (1913–2009) is one of the defining voices of American photography in the 20th century. Born in Brooklyn, she found her main motif in the streets of New York. In the 1930s she began observing urban life in Harlem and on the Lower East Side, witnessing all its spontaneity, poetry and inconsistencies. Children and the drawings they left chalked on walls and pavements became a recurring theme for her.

A member of the Photo League, Levitt worked with Walker Evans and was influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson. She is regarded as one of the early pioneers of colour photography. Her work as a filmmaker and editor – for Luis Buñuel among others – instilled in her a keen sense of rhythm and narrative. Her images of New York also give visual expression to the underbelly of the American Dream, characterised by migration, poverty and improvised ways of living.

Levitt’s complete archive can now be seen for the first time: her early Leica prints, 50 works from A Way of Seeing, and extensive archive material. Curated by Joshua Chuang, the exhibition is a collaboration with Fundación MAPFRE.