Helen Levitt#Critical studies and reviews of Levitt's work

Levitt was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of May (Kane), and Sam Levitt. Her father and maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants.{{Cite web |title=Helen Levitt |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJR8-X2K |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205032011/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJR8-X2K |archive-date=2021-12-05 |access-date=2020-04-04 |website=Family Search |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints}} She went to New Utrecht High School but dropped out in 1931.{{Cite journal |last=Grand |first=Elizabeth |date=2009 |title=Helen Levitt (1913–2009) and the Camera |journal=American Art |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=98–102 |doi=10.1086/649790 |s2cid=192186702}}

She began photography when she was eighteen{{Cite journal |last=Graves |first=Lauren |date=2021 |title=Inheritors of the Street: Helen Levitt Photographs Children's Chalk Drawings |journal=Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=58–83 |doi=10.5749/buildland.28.1.0058 |issn=1936-0886 |jstor=10.5749/buildland.28.1.0058 |s2cid=238008765}} and began working for J. Florian Mitchell, a commercial portrait photographer in the Bronx, where she learned how to develop photos in the darkroom.{{Cite web |title=Levitt, Helen (1913–) |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/levitt-helen-1913 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329120752/https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/levitt-helen-1913 |archive-date=2021-03-29 |access-date=2019-07-05 |website=Encyclopedia.com}}{{Cite news |date=April 8, 2009 |title=Helen Levitt |url=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2009/04/08/helen-levitt |newspaper=The Economist |volume=391}} She also attended many classes and events hosted by the Manhattan Film and Photography League, and got acquainted with the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Julien Levy Gallery,{{Cite web |title=Helen Levitt |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/helen-levitt-2907 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322040610/https://americanart.si.edu/artist/helen-levitt-2907 |archive-date=2021-03-22 |access-date=2019-07-05 |website=Smithsonian American Art Museum}} who she was able to meet through the league. His work became a major influence for her photography as it inspired her to change from her more journalistic and commercial approach to photography to a more personal one.{{Cite web |title=Museum of Contemporary Photography |url=https://www.mocp.org/detail.php?type=related&kv=7370&t=people |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204194300/https://www.mocp.org/detail.php?type=related&kv=7370&t=people |archive-date=2021-12-04 |access-date=2021-12-04 |website=www.mocp.org}}

In 1936, she purchased a 35 mm rangefinder camera.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Levitt, Helen |encyclopedia=The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography |publisher=Taylor & Francis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g4Wx9yKrDS0C&q=purchased+leica+helen+levitt&pg=PA267 |access-date=July 24, 2021 |last=Peres |first=Michael R. |date=May 29, 2013 |isbn=9781136106132 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205032012/https://books.google.com/books?id=g4Wx9yKrDS0C&q=purchased+leica+helen+levitt&pg=PA267 |archive-date=December 5, 2021 |via=Google Books |url-status=live}} While teaching art classes to children in 1937 for New York City's Federal Art Project,{{Cite journal |last=Graves |first=Lauren |date=2021 |title=Inheritors of the Street: Helen Levitt Photographs Children's Chalk Drawings |journal=Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=58 |doi=10.5749/buildland.28.1.0058 |issn=1936-0886 |s2cid=238008765}} Levitt became intrigued with the transitory chalk drawings that were part of the New York children's street culture of the time.{{Cite web |title=Graffiti: Chalk Drawing of Figure with Double Pupils, New York City (ca. 1940) |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/265109 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322040609/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/265109 |archive-date=2021-03-22 |access-date=2019-07-05 |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art}} She began to photograph these chalk drawings, as well as the children who made them for her own creative assignment with the Federal Art Project. They were ultimately published in 1987 as In the Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages, New York City 1938–1948.{{Cite book |last=Hambourg |first=Maria Morris |title=Helen Levitt |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |year=1991 |editor-last=Phillips, Sandra S. |pages=45–63 |chapter=Helen Levitt: A Life in Part |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/helenlevitt0000phil/page/45}}

She continued taking street photographs in Manhattan, mainly in Spanish Harlem but also in the Garment District and on the Lower East Side.{{Cite news |last=Silverman |first=Rena |date=January 16, 2019 |title=Helen Levitt's Street Photos Blend the Poetic With the Political |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/lens/helen-levitts-street-photos-blend-the-poetic-with-the-political.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322040627/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/lens/helen-levitts-street-photos-blend-the-poetic-with-the-political.html |archive-date=March 22, 2021 |access-date=July 5, 2019 |work=The New York Times}} During the 1930s to 1940s, the lack of air conditioning meant people were outside more, which invested her in street photography.{{Cite news |date=23 April 2009 |title=Helen Levitt |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/art-obituaries/5209410/Helen-Levitt.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317020854/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/art-obituaries/5209410/Helen-Levitt.html |archive-date=17 March 2017 |access-date=March 11, 2017 |work=The Telegraph}} Her work was first published in Fortune magazine's July 1939 issue.{{Cite journal |last=Gand |first=Elizabeth |date=September 1, 2009 |title=Helen Levitt (1913–2009) and the Camera |journal=American Art |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=98–102 |doi=10.1086/649790 |s2cid=192186702}} The new photography section of the Museum of Modern Art, New York included Levitt's work in its inaugural exhibition in July 1939.{{Cite news |last=Hopkinson |first=Amanda |date=April 3, 2009 |title=Obituary - Helen Levitt: Award-winning New York photographer noted for street scenes and social realism |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/apr/03/helen-levitt-obituary |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312084618/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/apr/03/helen-levitt-obituary |archive-date=March 12, 2017 |access-date=December 11, 2016 |work=The Guardian}} In 1941, she visited Mexico City with Alma Mailman, then wife of author James Agee, and took photos in the streets of Tacubaya, a working-class suburb. In 1943, Nancy Newhall curated her first solo exhibition Helen Levitt: Photographs of Children with photographs from Harlem and Mexico City.{{Cite press release |title=Museum of Modern Art Opens Two Exhibitions of Photography |date=4 March 1943 |url=https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_325372.pdf |last1=Newmeyer |first1=Sarah |access-date=2024-09-15 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412062757/https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_325372.pdf |archive-date=2021-04-12}}{{Cite web |date=2018-01-31 |title=Helen Levitt |url=https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/helen-levitt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322040607/https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/helen-levitt |archive-date=2021-03-22 |access-date=2021-12-05 |website=International Center of Photography}}

In 1959 and 1960, she received two grants from the Guggenheim Foundation for her pioneering work in color photography. In 1965 she published her first major collection, A Way of Seeing.{{Cite book |last1=Levitt |first1=Helen |url=https://archive.org/details/wayofseeing0000levi_h2h5 |title=A Way of Seeing |last2=Agee |first2=James |author-link2=James Agee |publisher=Horizon Press |year=1965 |location=New York}} Much of her work in color from 1959 to 1960 was stolen in a 1970 burglary of her East 12th Street apartment. The remaining photos, and others taken in the following years, can be seen in the 2005 book Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt.{{Cite book |last=Levitt |first=Helen |title=Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt |publisher=powerHouse Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-57687-252-9}} A second solo exhibit, Projects: Helen Levitt in Color, was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1974.{{Cite web |title=Projects: Helen Levitt in Color |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2512 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322040600/https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2512 |archive-date=2021-03-22 |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=Museum of Modern Art}} Her next major shows were in the 1960s; Amanda Hopkinson suggests that this second wave of recognition was related to the feminist rediscovery of women's creative achievements. In 1976, she was a Photography Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts.{{Cite web |date=2017-02-04 |title=Helen Levitt |url=https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/helen-levitt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322040607/https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/helen-levitt |archive-date=2021-03-22 |access-date=2017-03-11 |website=International Center of Photography}}

Levitt lived in New York City and remained active as a photographer for nearly 70 years. However, she expressed lament at the change of New York City scenery: "I go where there's a lot of activity. Children used to be outside. Now the streets are empty. People are indoors looking at television or something."

File:In the Street (1948, MoAAAEF).webm (1948)]]

During WWII, Levitt served as assistant film editor at the Office of Inter-American Affairs, producer-editor of stock footage film Here Is China (1940), and as assistant film editor at the Office of War Information Overseas Branch in New York City 1944–45.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Women, American: Early Filmmakers |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film 3-Volume Set |publisher=Routledge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdSNAQAAQBAJ&dq=helen+grayson+bryn+mawr&pg=PA1459 |access-date=2024-04-07 |last=Starr |first=Cecile |date=2013-10-18 |editor-last=Aitken |editor-first=Ian |language=en |isbn=978-1-135-20620-8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916221641/https://books.google.com/books?id=JdSNAQAAQBAJ&dq=helen+grayson+bryn+mawr&pg=PA1459#v=onepage&q=helen%20grayson%20bryn%20mawr&f=false |archive-date=2024-09-16 |url-status=live}}

In the late 1940s, Levitt made two documentary films with Janice Loeb and James Agee: In the Street (1948) and The Quiet One (1948). Levitt, along with Loeb and Sidney Meyers, received an Academy Award nomination for The Quiet One.{{Cite web |title=The 21st Academy Awards {{!}} 1949 |url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1949 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706093808/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/21st-winners.html |archive-date=2011-07-06 |access-date=2021-12-05 |website=Oscars.org |language=en}}

Another Light (1952) is dramatized documentary about a small town and its new hospital, focusing on the reactions of an elderly farmer, a housewife, and a businessman. The film explains how town citizens in Ridgewood, NJ, raised construction funds, and how the hospital supports and serves the community. Presented by the Federal Security Agency's Public Health Service, the film was produced by William Levitt, written by William B. Mahoney, camera by Richard Leacock, co-edited by Levitt and Loeb, and directed by Levitt.

Made by Film Documents Productions.Levitt was active in film making for nearly 25 years; her final film credit is as an editor for John Cohen's documentary The End of an Old Song (1972).{{Cite web |last=Mathews |first=Scott |date=2008-08-06 |title=John Cohen in Eastern Kentucky: Documentary Expression and the Image of Roscoe Halcomb During the Folk Revival |url=http://southernspaces.org/2008/john-cohen-eastern-kentucky-documentary-expression-and-image-roscoe-halcomb-during-folk-revival |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025154527/http://southernspaces.org/2008/john-cohen-eastern-kentucky-documentary-expression-and-image-roscoe-halcomb-during-folk-revival |archive-date=2012-10-25 |access-date=2010-08-12 |website=Southern Spaces}} Levitt's other film credits include the cinematography on The Savage Eye (1960),{{Cite journal |last=Jackson |first=Benjamin T. |date=Summer 1960 |title=The Savage Eye |journal=Film Quarterly |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=53–57 |doi=10.1525/fq.1960.13.4.04a00160 |doi-broken-date=November 1, 2024}} which was produced by Ben Maddow, Meyers, and Joseph Strick, and also as an assistant director for Strick and Maddow's film version of Genet's play The Balcony (1963). In her 1991 biographical essay, Maria Hambourg wrote that Levitt "has all but disinherited this part of her work." In 2012 Deane Williams published a comprehensive overview of Levitt's films in Senses of Cinema.{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Deane |date=March 2012 |title=Helen Levitt |url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/cteq/helen-levitt/ |url-status=live |journal=Senses of Cinema |issue=62 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160525122508/http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/cteq/helen-levitt/ |archive-date=2016-05-25 |access-date=2016-06-18}} A critical review of Levitt's filmmaking career.

Helen Levitt was most well known and celebrated for her work taking pictures of children playing in the streets. She also focused her work in areas of Harlem and the Lower East side with minority populations.{{Cite web |last=Rourke |first=Mary |date=April 1, 2009 |title=Helen Levitt dies at 95; New York street photographer of poignant dramas |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-helen-levitt1-2009apr01-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204200029/https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-helen-levitt1-2009apr01-story.html |archive-date=December 4, 2021 |access-date=December 4, 2021 |website=Los Angeles Times}} There is a constant motif of children playing games in her work. She stepped away from the normal practice set by other established photographers at the time of giving a journalistic depiction of suffering. She instead chose to show the world from the perspective of children from taking pictures of their chalk art. She usually positions the camera and styles the photo in a way that gives the focus of her photography power.{{Cite journal |last=Graves |date=2021 |title=Inheritors of the Street: Helen Levitt Photographs Children's Chalk Drawings |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5749/buildland.28.1.0058 |url-status=live |journal=Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=58 |doi=10.5749/buildland.28.1.0058 |issn=1936-0886 |s2cid=238008765 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231001136/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/buildland.28.1.0058 |archive-date=2021-12-31 |access-date=2021-12-04}}

Her choice to display children playing in the street and explore street photography, fights against what was going on at the time. Legislation being passed in New York at the time was limiting many of the working classes access to these public spaces. Laws were passed that directly targeted these communities in an attempt to control them. New bans on noise targeted working class and minority communities. There was a movement to also try to keep children from playing on the street, believing it is unsafe for them out there. Instead, it encouraged safe new areas that were usually built more in upper and middle class areas. Helen Levitt instead explored the narrative of those who lived in these areas and played in these streets as a way to empower the subjects of her photos.

She had to give up making her own prints in the 1990s due to sciatica, which also made standing and carrying her Leica difficult, causing her to switch to a small, automatic Contax.{{Cite news |date=2009-04-08 |title=Helen Levitt |url=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2009/04/08/helen-levitt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205023034/https://www.economist.com/obituary/2009/04/08/helen-levitt |archive-date=2021-12-05 |access-date=2021-12-05 |newspaper=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}} She was born with Ménière's syndrome, an inner-ear disorder that caused her to "[feel] wobbly all [her] life." She also had a near-fatal case of pneumonia in the 1950s. Levitt lived a personal and quiet life. She seldom gave interviews and was generally very introverted. She never married, living alone with her yellow tabby Blinky. Levitt died in her sleep on March 29, 2009, at the age of 95.

• 1946: MoMA photography fellowship
• 1959 and 1960: Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1976: National Endowment for the Arts Photography Fellow
• 1997: ICP Infinity Award, Master of Photography{{Cite web |date=February 26, 1997 |title=1997 Infinity Award: Master of Photography. Helen Levitt is the recipient of the 1997 Master of Photography award |url=https://www.icp.org/infinity-awards/helen-levitt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916221630/https://www.icp.org/infinity-awards/helen-levitt |archive-date=2024-09-16 |access-date=2024-09-16 |website=ICP.org}}
• 2008: Francis J. Greenburger Award for excellence in the arts{{Cite web |title=Helen Levitt |url=http://www.jacksonfineart.com/bios/68.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429005503/http://www.jacksonfineart.com/bios/68.pdf |archive-date=April 29, 2017 |access-date=March 11, 2017 |website=Jackson Fine Art}}
• 2008: {{ill|Spectrum - Internationaler Preis für Fotografie der Stiftung Niedersachsen|de}}, accompanied by an exhibition at the Sprengel Museum, Hanover
• 2022: International Photography Hall of Fame{{Cite web |title=Helen Levitt |url=https://www.iphf.org/hof-helen-levitt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916221637/https://www.iphf.org/hof-helen-levitt |archive-date=2024-09-16 |access-date=2024-09-16 |website=International Photography Hall of Fame}}

• 1943: Helen Levitt: Photographs of Children, Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by Nancy Newhall (alongside a solo show by Eliot Porter: Birds in Color)
• 1949: Photo League, New York, with John Candilario
• 1952: Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, with Frederick Sommer
• 1963: Three Photographers in Color, MoMA, New York, with Roman Vishniac and William Garnett
• 1974: Projects: Helen Levitt in Color, Museum of Modern Art, New York, continuous projection of 40 color slides, curated by John Szarkowski
• 1975: Pratt Institute, Brooklyn
• 1976: Nexus Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
• 1980: Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. (catalogue)
• 1980: Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
• 1980: Helen Levitt: Color Photographs, Grossmont College, El Cajon, California (catalogue)
• 1982: Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco (again in 1986, 1994, and 1996 [...?])Weiermair 1998, p. 109f.
• 1983: Street Portrait: The Photographs of Helen Levitt Museum of Fine Arts, Boston{{Cite web |last=Foresta |first=Merry A. |date=July 5, 1984 |title=Exposed and Developed: Photography Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZCU6AQAAMAAJ&q=%E2%80%9CStreet+Portrait:+The+Photographs+of+Helen+Levitt,%E2%80%9D |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205032011/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZCU6AQAAMAAJ&q=%E2%80%9CStreet+Portrait:+The+Photographs+of+Helen+Levitt,%E2%80%9D |archive-date=December 5, 2021 |access-date=July 24, 2021 |publisher=National Museum of American Art |via=Google Books}}
• 1985: Moderna Museet, Stockholm
• 1987: International Center of Photography, New York
• 1987: Laurence Miller Gallery, New York (1989–92 annually, 1996 [...?])Weiermair 1998, p. 109f.
• 1988: The Photographers' Gallery, London
• 1991: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, first major retrospective in US, toured North America until 1994 (catalogue){{Cite book |last1=Kort |first1=Carol |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iCcpVOQRtN0C&q=San+Francisco+Museum+of+Modern+Art+helen+levitt&pg=PA133 |title=A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts |last2=Sonneborn |first2=Liz |date=May 14, 2014 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438107912 |access-date=July 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205032011/https://books.google.com/books?id=iCcpVOQRtN0C&q=San+Francisco+Museum+of+Modern+Art+helen+levitt&pg=PA133 |archive-date=December 5, 2021 |url-status=live |via=Google Books}}
• 1993: Seattle Art Museum, with Mary Ellen Mark
• 1994: {{ill|Diputación Provincial de Granada|es}} (Palacio de los Condes de Gabia), Spain, toured (catalogue)
• 1997: International Center of Photography, New York{{Cite journal |last=Strauss |first=David Levi |date=October 1997 |title=Helen Levitt: International Center for Photography - exhibition |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_n2_v36/ai_20357665 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090403191919/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_n2_v36/ai_20357665/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 3, 2009 |journal=Artforum |access-date=2008-08-11}}
• 1998/99: Frankfurter Kunstverein, Rupertinum, Salzburg, Festspielgalerie Berlin, and Villa Stuck, Munich (catalogue)
• 2001: Centre national de la photographie, Paris
• 2007: Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Paris{{Cite press release |title=Helen Levitt: September 12 - December 23, 2007 |publisher=Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation |url=https://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/expositions/helen-levitt-2/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916221642/https://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/expositions/helen-levitt-2/ |archive-date=2024-09-16}}
• 2008: Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam
• 2008: Sprengel Museum, Hanover, accompanied her award for the {{ill|Spectrum International Photography Prize|de}} (catalogue)
• 2010: PHotoEspaña, Madrid, 2010 and toured (catalogue)
• 2018/19: Albertina Museum, Vienna (catalogue)
• 2021/22: In the Street, The Photographers' Gallery, London,{{Cite web |date=2 October 2021 |title=Meet the real Helen Levitt, New York's most intimate chronicler |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/oct/02/helen-levitt-photographer-new-york-in-the-street-photographers-gallery |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016011655/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/oct/02/helen-levitt-photographer-new-york-in-the-street-photographers-gallery |archive-date=2021-10-16 |access-date=2021-10-16 |website=The Guardian}}{{Cite news |last=Diggins |first=Alex |date=13 October 2021 |title=Helen Levitt: In the Street, review: the marvellous, off-kilter world of New York City's streets |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/helen-levitt-street-review-marvellous-off-kilter-world-new-york/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015163516/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/helen-levitt-street-review-marvellous-off-kilter-world-new-york/ |archive-date=2021-10-15 |access-date=2021-10-16 |work=The Telegraph |issn=0307-1235}} Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam (catalogue)
• 2023: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt - Mexico, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris

• 1939: Museum of Modern Art, New York
• 1949: Six Women Photographers, MoMA, New York
• 1955: The Family of Man, MoMA, New York, worldwide touring exhibition (catalogue)
• 1965: Photography in America 1850–1965, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
• 1968: Harlem on My Mind, Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), New York
• 1973: Landscape/Cityscape, MET, New York
• 1978: Mirrors and Windows, MoMA, New York, touring exhibition until 1980 (catalogue)
• 1981: The New Color: A Decade of Color Photography, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse. New York
• 1985: American Images 1945–80, Barbican Art Gallery, London, touring exhibition in UK
• 1988: Evocative Presence, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
• 1988: Convulsive Beauty: The Impact of Surrealism on American Art, Whitney Museum, New York
• 1988: Diamonds Are Forever, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., touring exhibition
• 1989: The New Vision: Photography Between the World Wars, MET, New York (catalogue)
• 1989: Photography: 150 Years, Australian National Gallery, Canberra
• 1989: Fotografi: 150 År, Fotografiska Museet, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
• 1989: On the Art of Fixing a Shadow, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Art Institute of Chicago, and Ikona Photo Gallery, Venice, Italy (catalogue)
• 1991: Motion and Document, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, touring exhibition (catalogue)
• 1991: American Documents in the Finge, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (catalogue)
• 1992: This Sporting Life, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia (catalogue)
• 1993: Mexico Through Foreign Eyes, ICP, New York, touring exhibition (catalogue)
• 1994: American Surrealist Photography, MoMA, New York
• 1995: American Photography 1890–1965 from the Museum of Modern Art, touring exhibition in Europe (catalogue)
• 1995: Images of an Era: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
• 1996: Highlights of the Permanent Collection, ICP, New York
• 1997: Documenta X, Kassel, Germany

• In the Street (1948): cinematographer and editor
• The Quiet One (1948): cinematographer and writer
• The Stairs (1950): producer
• Steps of Age (1951), for the Mental Health Film Board
• Another Light (1952): director and co-editor with Janice Loeb
• The Savage Eye (1960): cinematographer
• The Balcony (1963): assistant director
• An Affair of the Skin (1963): co-producer with Ben Maddow
• In the Year of the Pig (1968): co-editor with Hannah Moreinis{{Cite book |last=Barsam |first=Richard Meran |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7p36FdLYdIC&pg=PA418 |title=Nonfiction Film: A Critical History |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-253-20706-7 |page=418}}
• The End of an Old Song (1972): editor

• {{Cite book |last1=Levitt |first1=Helen |url=https://archive.org/details/wayofseeing0000levi_h2h5 |title=A Way of Seeing |last2=Agee |first2=James |author-link2=James Agee |publisher=Horizon Press |year=1965 |location=New York}}
• {{Cite book |title=A Way of Seeing |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8223-1005-1 |edition=3}}
• {{Cite book |last=Livingston |first=Jane S. |author-link=Jane Livingston |title=Helen Levitt |publisher=Corcoran Art Gallery |year=1980 |location=Washington |type=exhibition catalogue}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Hellman |first1=Roberta |title=Helen Levitt: Color Photographs |last2=Hoshimo |first2=Marvin |publisher=Grossmont College |year=1980 |location=El Cajon |type=exhibition catalogue}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Levitt |first1=Helen |title=In the Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages, New York City, 1938–1948 |last2=Coles |first2=Robert |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-8223-0771-5}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=Sandra S. |url=https://archive.org/details/helenlevitt0000phil |title=Helen Levitt |last2=Hambourg |first2=Maria Morris |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |year=1991 |isbn=0-918471-22-2 |type=exhibition catalogue |authorlink=Sandra S. Phillips}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Levitt |first1=Helen |title=Mexico City |last2=Oles |first2=James |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=1997 |isbn=0-393-04549-8}}
• {{Cite book |title=Helen Levitt |year=1998 |editor-last=Weiermair |editor-first=Peter |type=exhibition catalogue, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Rupertinum, Salzburg, Berliner Festspiele, Villa Stuck, Munich|publisher=Prestel|location=Munich/New York|isbn=3-7913-1974-4}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Levitt |first1=Helen |title=Crosstown |last2=Prose |first2=Francine |author-link2=Francine Prose |publisher=powerHouse Books |year=2001 |isbn=1-57687-103-7 |location=Brooklyn}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Levitt |first1=Helen |title=Here and There |last2=Gopnik |first2=Adam |author-link2=Adam Gopnik |publisher=powerHouse Books |year=2004 |isbn=1-57687-165-7}}
• {{Cite book |last=Szarkowski |first=John |author-link=John Szarkowski |title=Slide Show: The Color Photographs of Helen Levitt |publisher=powerHouse |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-57687-252-9}}
• {{Cite book |last=Schube |first=Inka |title=Helen Levitt |date=2008 |publisher=powerHouse |others=Spectrum – International Photography Prize |isbn=978-1-57687-429-5 |type=exhibition catalogue, Sprengel Museum Hannover}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Trachtenberg |first1=Alan |author-link=Alan Trachtenberg |title=Helen Levitt: Lírica Urbana |last2=Chevrier |first2=Jean-François |author-link2=Jean-François Chevrier |last3=Ribalta |first3=Jorge |date=2010 |publisher=La Fabrica Editorial |isbn=978-84-92841-24-0 |lang=Spanish}}
• {{Cite book |last=Dyer |first=Geoff |author-link=Geoff Dyer |title=One, Two, Three, More |publisher=powerHouse |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-57687-852-1}}
• {{Cite book |last=Campany |first=David |author-link=David Campany |title=Manhattan Transit: The Subway Photographs of Helen Levitt |publisher=Galerie Thomas Zander and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-96098-122-0 |location=Cologne}}
• {{Cite book |title=Helen Levitt |publisher=Kehrer |year=2018 |isbn=978-3-86828-897-1 |editor-last=Moser |editor-first=Walter |location=Heidelberg/Berlin |type=exhibition catalogue, Albertina, Vienna}}

• {{Cite book |last=Kozloff |first=Max |author-link=Max Kozloff |title=The Privileged Eye: Essays on Photography |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |year=1987 |isbn=0826308929 |location=Albuquerque |chapter=A Way of Seeing and a Way of Touching |orig-year=1984}}
• {{Cite book |last=Livingston |first=Jane S. |author-link=Jane Livingston |title=The New York School: Photographs 1936–1963 |publisher=Stewart, Tabori, & Chang |year=1992 |isbn=1556702396 |location=Philadelphia}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Hambourg |first1=Maria Morris |title=The New Vision: Photography Between the World Wars |last2=Phillips |first2=Christopher |date=1989 |isbn=0870995502 |location=New York |type=exhibition catalogue, Ford Motor Company Collection at the MET, New York}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Westerbeck |first1=Colin |author-link=Colin Westerbeck |title=Bystander: A History of Street Photography |last2=Meyerowitz |first2=Joel |author-link2=Joel Meyerowitz |publisher=Bulfinch |year=1994 |isbn=0-82121-755-0 |location=Boston}}
• {{Cite episode |title=Helen Levitt's Indelible Eye |url=https://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/jan/levitt/020117.levitt.html |series=All Things Considered |last=Block |first=Melissa |author-link=Melissa Block |network=National Public Radio |date=January 17, 2002}} Radio program featuring an interview with Levitt.
• {{Cite book |last=Kotzloff |first=Max |title=New York: Capital of Photography |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-300-09332-2 |location=New Haven/London |type=exhibition catalogue, Jewish Museum, New York}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Dikant |first=Thomas |year=2003 |title=Helen Levitt: 10 Photographs |url=https://web.fu-berlin.de/phin/phin25/p25t1.htm |journal=Philologie Im Netz |volume=25 |pages=1–30}} Critical study on ten of Levitt's photographs. Dikant also discusses the influences on Levitt, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ben Shahn, and Walker Evans.
• {{Cite news |last=Williamson |first=Marcus |author-link=Marcus Williamson |date=April 17, 2009 |title=Helen Levitt: Photographer renowned for her portraits of street life in New York |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/helen-levitt-photographer-renowned-for-her-portraits-of-street-life-in-new-york-1670451.html |work=The Independent}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Smith, Joel |date=February 22, 2018 |title=People Watching |journal=The New York Review of Books |volume=65 |issue=3 |pages=22–24}} Review of One, Two, Three, More.

{{reflist}}

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• [https://www.lensculture.com/articles/helen-levitt-helen-levitt-new-york-streets-1938-to-1990s Helen Levitt: New York Streets 1938 to 1990s] at LensCulture
• {{IMDb name|1844803}}. Note that there is occasionally confusion of Levitt's film credits with those of Helen Slote Levitt.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levitt, Helen}}

Category:American street photographers

Category:1913 births

Category:2009 deaths

Category:20th-century American photographers

Category:20th-century American women photographers

Category:American cinematographers

Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent

Category:People from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn

Category:People with Ménière's disease

Category:Photographers from New York (state)

Category:Jews from New York (state)