Legendary female photgrapher and native New Yorker, Helen Levitt, passed away this week at the age of 95. Levitt, a self-reliant rebel from Bensonhurst , embodied the no-nonsense New York attitude in her body of work spanning from the early 1930s until the mid 1980s.
Levitt opened the eyes of America to the sullen corners of Harlem and the Lower East Side in a style reflecting her influences, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans. In a showing of loyalty, Levitt stayed true to her native city only straying a handful of times to photograph in Mexico City.
Levitt earned her photography bones unabashedly navigating the mean streets of some of the early 20th century's toughest neighborhoods armed with little more than a camera and an uncanny eye for compsition. Levitt chose to buck the high gloss world of gallery art instead finding her voice and fame in the dramatic faces hanging on every marginalized corner living out an surreal drama of poverty and city life.
Even at the age of 95 I can't help but think that a spirit like Helen Levitt has passed too soon.
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