Looking Around

Helen Levitt: 1913-2009

By Richard Lacayo | March 30, 2009 | +
Untitled (broken mirror), Helen Levitt, New York, c.1940/all photos: Laurence Miller Gallery
Untitled (broken mirror), Helen Levitt, New York, c.1940/all photos: Laurence Miller Gallery
... to bring you the constant variety of television! * In Russia, you don't threaten South Park—South Park threatens you! * In Thailand, they depose leaders for making dumb TV appearances. * And the Telegraph reports that scientists have identified a cell in the brain that responds to The Simpsons. And there's a cell in your BLANK that responds to Match Game!

Helen Levitt was one of the pivotal figures of American street photography. Though she often photographed kids at play, it was without sentimentality. If anything she had a way of making you feel like they were signposts of the secret life of the city, doing their mysterious thing while the adult world bustled by unawares. Likewise her many pictures of graffiti, unusual at the time, which look like messages from the collective unconscious.

Untitled (5 cent head), New York, c. 1938
Untitled (5 cent head), New York, c. 1938
Project Runway judge Michael Kors showed his own collection at New York's Fall Fashion Week. WWD calls his spring collection "a bit familiar," but at least there's no models "pooping fabric" here! Elsewhere at time.com, Joel Stein offers his take, which apparently differs from the rest of the fashion commentariat. ("Those are the three things we hate: fun, sexy and cool. We like moody and subversive.")

I thought of her again just a few weeks ago when I posted about the neglected photos of Homer Page. It was obvious that Levitt was somebody whose work he’d been looking at when he set out to make his own essays on New York street life. (Something I should have mentioned at the time.) But of course it would be. Any smart photographer in the 1940s who was trying to get a feel for the city would have turned to her as a model. And I’ll bet you they always will.

Untitled (girl/green car), New York, 1980
Untitled (girl/green car), New York, 1980
NUP_131348_0234.JPG
Bravo Photo: Barbara Nitke
 The Project Runway show at New York's Fashion Week is coming up tomorrow, and once again I got an invitation. I went last spring, but I've been conflicted about going in the past, because I've worried about finding out who's eliminated in the future and having anything spoiled for me. PR has taken care of my worries this season, though, and not by a stunt like having five or more designers show collections. (They may do that yet; I'm not in on the plans.) No, they've relieved my worry by putting together a season 5 I could hardly care less about. (Conspiracy theorists would say they're salting the Earth for Lifetime, which takes the show next year, in which case maybe they'll show only three designers at Fashion Week and encourage us to print spoilers immediately.) Spoilers coming up after the jump: As I said last week, I'm guessing the winner is either Leanne or Korto, and I like both just fine but I'm not really enthused about either. And they seem to be returning the favor right back; Korto, in particular, always seems like she has something better to do than appearing on our television show, and would we mind leaving her alone because she really has work to do? Anyhoo—the Zodiac challenge, one of the dumbest challenge concepts in a season full of them, didn't do much to win me back. The most interesting, and chilling, part of the episode was the review of the designs by past contestants, which seemed like a cautionary tale of the future: do well enough on Project Runway, and someday you can—be right back on Project Runway! I was glad to see Blayne go, wished Suede had joined him, and think Kenley skated based only on her past record, after doing work (see above) that managed to be both silly and derivative. But then Project Runway's doing the same thing right now, so who can hold it against her?
Related Topics: Looking Around

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  • ericmlevin

    Levitt’s color is a touchstone for me. In the picture above, the energy between the colors has a life of its own. It changes the context of the little girl’s sprawling, spiderlike, faceless pose, adding an element of sensuality that would not be there in black&white.

    We find her under the mantislike green, which as lurid as if the insect was pole dancing on 42nd St. In the background the placid sky-blue bug, the four-wheeled variety, is just a passing cloud of loveliness, though smudgy in its coat of city soot.

    She is of the swooping green, removed from the soothing blue, which hovers like a thought balloon (is it ok to mix metaphors in a blog post?). Yet in color she is closer to the gritty street, an extension of its drabness, scuttling deeper into the darkness, looking for something hidden under the extravagant carapace of the green car.

  • http://c-monster.net/blog1/2009/03/31/the-digest-033109/ The Digest. 03.31.09. at C-MONSTER.net

    [...] Helen Levitt, R.I.P. More here and here. [...]

  • 101quickandeasysecrets

    I’ve been to this page many times and really enjoy Levitt’s use of color.

  • 101quickandeasysecrets
  • http://strategie.weblog.ro/2009/03/30/helen-levitt-1913-2009/ strategie » Blog Archive » Helen Levitt: 1913-2009

    [...] nu apartine niciunei categorii. Helen Levitt was one of the pivotal figures of American street photography. Though she often photographed kids at play, it was without sentimentality. If [...]

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