Helen Levitt's A Way of Seeing captures the expressive nature of everyday life in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s. Focused on the working-class neighborhoods of the city, particularly Harlem, Levitt’s images reveal the energy, social interactions, and creativity of urban communities, with a strong emphasis on children at play. Her background as an artist was shaped by the influence of photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans, both of whom inspired her approach to street photography.
Levitt’s work was informed by the social realism of the 1930s but was not driven by an overt political agenda; instead, she sought to highlight the beauty and humanity found in ordinary moments. Her project aligns with the broader cultural movement of documentary photography while remaining distinct in its emphasis on aesthetics and intuition. Through A Way of Seeing, Levitt explores themes of childhood, urban space, surrealism, and social connection, capturing fleeting, meaningful interactions that give viewers insight into the life of New York’s streets.
Using a 35mm compact camera with a right-angle viewfinder, which enabled discreet photography by making it appear as though she was looking elsewhere, Levitt remained unobtrusive and captured candid moments with intimacy. Her framing and composition emphasize movement, spontaneity, and the relationship between people and their surroundings. The influence of surrealism is evident in her ability to find the extraordinary within the ordinary, particularly through her documentation of street graffiti and the imaginative world of children’s games.
First published in 1965 with James Agee’s essay (from a 1940s dummy) and later reissued in expanded form by Duke University Press (1989/90), A Way of Seeing has been shown regularly in major exhibitions—including Levitt’s solo presentations at MoMA (1943; 1974)—and is represented in museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, securing its standing as a widely cited example of twentieth-century street photography.
