Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5
Helen LevittNew York City (woman reaching out)1939
1939
$6,000List Price
About the Item
- Creator:Helen Levitt (1913-2009, American)
- Creation Year:1939
- Dimensions:Height: 11 in (27.94 cm)Width: 14 in (35.56 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU3022925923
Helen Levitt
Helen Levitt often commented that the reason she expressed herself through photography was that she was inarticulate with the spoken word. One of the most celebrated photographers of the 20th century among her peers but least known by the public, from a young age she wanted to create art but knew her talents with a paintbrush or a charcoal pencil were limited. She discovered a way to artistically express herself — through the lens of a camera.
Levitt was born in Brooklyn, New York. At 18, she dropped out of high school to work in a portrait photographer’s darkroom — eventually trying her hand at photography. She trained herself to take better compositions by studying paintings in museums around New York and then using her mother’s friends as practice subjects. In 1936, after discovering the works of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson she purchased her first camera and began to take pictures of neighborhood children making sidewalk chalk drawings.
Levitt took her portfolio to the studio of Walker Evans — another photographer which she admired. Struck by her thoughtful compositions and natural talent, he hired her as his assistant. She began photographing ordinary street life in the lower-class neighborhoods of East Harlem, the Lower East Side and the Garment District in New York City.
In 1939, Levitt’s photographs were published in Fortune magazine. Later that same year, she received a grant from the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Guggenheim Foundation. Seeing a similarity in film noir to what she was trying to capture in black and white photography, she became a film editor. She worked on several films including The Quiet One, an Academy Award nominee.
In 1959 Levitt began to photograph in color but eventually returned to black and white photography in the 1990s. A collection of her photographs of children and their chalk drawings were eventually published, in 1987, in a book called In the Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages. Some of her color photographs were published in Slide Show in 2005.
On 1stDibs find original Helen Levitt black and white photography, portrait photography, color photography and more.
About the Seller
No Reviews Yet
Recognized Seller
These prestigious sellers are industry leaders and represent the highest echelon for item quality and design.
Established in 1982
1stDibs seller since 2015
37 sales on 1stDibs
Associations
Art Dealers Association of AmericaAssociation of International Photography Art Dealers
Authenticity Guarantee
In the unlikely event there’s an issue with an item’s authenticity, contact us within 1 year for a full refund. DetailsMoney-Back Guarantee
If your item is not as described, is damaged in transit, or does not arrive, contact us within 7 days for a full refund. Details24-Hour Cancellation
You have a 24-hour grace period in which to reconsider your purchase, with no questions asked.Vetted Professional Sellers
Our world-class sellers must adhere to strict standards for service and quality, maintaining the integrity of our listings.Price-Match Guarantee
If you find that a seller listed the same item for a lower price elsewhere, we’ll match it.Trusted Global Delivery
Our best-in-class carrier network provides specialized shipping options worldwide, including custom delivery.You May Also Like
NYC 1939 World's Fair 5 - 8 x 10 photographs Mid 20th Century WPA Architectural
Located in New York, NY
NYC 1939 World's Fair 5 - 8 x 10 photographs Mid 20th Century WPA Architectural
Underwood and Underwood
1939 World’s Fair Photographs
8 x 10 inches each
All five prints are stamped...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Shaker Interior, Sabbathday Lake, Maine
By George Tice
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Shaker Interior, Sabbathday Lake, Maine
Silver print, selenium toned, 1971
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
Titled verso (see photo)
Printed c. 1971
Condition: Excellent
Image: 6 1/2 x 9 3/8 inches
Frame: 14 x 17 inches
Original Kulicke welded frame
George A. Tice, born in Newark, New Jersey, United States, October 13, 1938, the son of a college-educated New Jerseyan, William S. Tice, and Margaret Robertson, a Traveller of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh stock with a fourth-grade education. George was raised by his mother, maintaining regular visiting contact with his father, whose influence and advice he valued highly.
Education
His first contact with photography was in the albums of family photographs belonging to his father, and this gave him the desire to create images of his own. George Tice began with a Kodak Brownie. In 1953, having bought a Kodak Pony, which gave him some control over exposure and focus, and a Kodak developing kit, he began to advance his craft. George Tice also joined the Carteret Camera Club. Tice's photographs of homeless men on the Bowery won second place in the black and white print competitions. George Tice decided at this point to make photography his career.
In 1955 George Tice attended the Newark Vocational and Technical High School, where he briefly studied commercial photography under Harve Wobbe. When he turned sixteen, he quit school and took a job as a darkroom assistant for Classic Photo, a portrait studio in Newark. He also worked as a stock boy at Kreske's Department Store in Newark, then as an office boy in the circulation department of the Newark Evening News.
In 1956 George Tice enlisted in the United States Navy, in which he rose to the rank of Photographer's Mate Third Class. After boot camp and two years at Naval Air Station Memphis, he was transferred to sea duty aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Wasp...
Category
1970s American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
"Natalia Makarova " vintage "Serge Lifar " collection
Located in CANNES, FR
"Natalia Makarova " is an gelatin print , silver bromide, numbered and signed photograph
offered to " serge Lifar " by Max Waldman . Artist proof .
Ser...
Category
1970s American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
$4,620 Sale Price
48% Off
H 15.75 in W 17.72 in D 0.79 in
Waterski Jumper
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Arthur Felling, better known as Weegee (1899-1968) is America's premiere photojournalist and one of the last century's most influential photographers.
He would become famous, beyond...
Category
1950s American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Weegee "Distortion: Stripes"
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Innovative, provocative, inimitable - these are just a few of the words to describe America's boldest photographer.
Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee (1899-1968) was a ground-breaking, successful (and notorious) photojournalist. His images shot on the streets of New York City are iconic and influential.
In the 1930s he became the first New York City press photographer to obtain permission to install a police radio in his car. This allowed him to follow the city's first responders and to document their duties; responding to fire, crime, debauchery and of course, murder.
By the early 1940s Weegee was experiencing fatigue with crime reportage. Ironically, this was also the point when he finally began experiencing professional validation and acclaim, to the point of being a minor celebrity. Notably in 1941 he was included in The MoMA's seminal "50 Photographs by 50 Photographers" (curated by Edward Steichen). The museum would also acquire five Weegee photographs...
Category
1940s American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Weegee "A Trip to Mars"
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
While many first associate Weegee (aka Arthur Fellig) with New York City crime scenes, perhaps a broader and more consistent theme is that of spectacle and/or urban entertainment.
The origins of his nick-name and reputation date back to the 1930s when he became the first New York City press photographer to obtain permission to install a police radio in his car. Following the city's first responders and documenting their duties, Weegee had unprecedented access to New York’s fires, crimes, debaucheries and of course, murders.
During the first decade of his career these unflinching urban tragedy or crime images paid Weegee's bills, but as he became more financially independent he was more inspired to pursue photographs on his own agenda. While his oeuvre is vast, Weegee was especially drawn to entertainment: nightlife, circuses, the theatre, showgirls, city thrills, the cinema etc.
Some of Weegee's most dynamic and tender (and under-appreciated!) images are related to simply having fun (in a crowd). He was not confined to one neighbourhood or demographic. He captured action, faces and events from Coney Island to the Bowery and Greenwich Village, to Times Square and Harlem.
In “A Trip To Mars,” Weegee depicts a multi-generational group crowding around a large telescope...
Category
1940s American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Weegee "Sailor and Girl Kissing"
By Weegee
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Weegee (1899-1968) was equally fascinated and inspired by cinema and all of its tangents, from Hollywood movie stars to ordinary civilians going to the movies. While Weegee is typically associated with crime/disaster images, the broad theme of "entertainment" is a major component of his oeuvre.
An interesting and provocative sub-genre of his cinema-related work are his images of couples (often heavy-petting) in movie theatres.
Recent scholarship has established that many of Weegee's supposed clandestine images were actually staged or arranged with friends or co-operative strangers.
Nevertheless, Weegee created these photographs in the dark with an array of clever techniques including infrared film, filtered flashbulb and triangular prism lens. Employed in shots such as this one, the prism lens would allow the artist to “see around corners,” useful at times when his subjects were in compromising locations.
These images of kissing couples, Weegee wrote in 1959, were “his best seller, year in and year out.”
"Sailor and GIrl at the Movies...
Category
1940s American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Kent, England - Black and White Photograph, Nude, Park, Bench, People
By Elliott Erwitt
Located in Denton, TX
Kent, England by Elliott Erwitt is a black and white photograph featuring a group of nude people standing in a park, with their backs facing the camera.
G...
Category
1960s American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
$7,500 Sale Price
21% Off
H 20 in W 24 in D 0.07 in
Bathing Beauties
By John Albok
Located in Denton, TX
Vintage gelatin silver print
9 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.
Titled, dated and artist stamp on verso.
Born in Munkacs, Hungary, John Albok learned photography as a boy. He came to the U.S. in 192...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Coney Island
By John Albok
Located in Denton, TX
Unique
Vintage gelatin silver print
7 1/4 x 6 1/8 in.
Titled, dated, and artist stamp.
Born in Munkacs, Hungary, John Albok learned photography as a boy. He came to the U.S. in 1921...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
More From This Seller
View AllNew York at Night
By Berenice Abbott, 1898-1991
Located in New York, NY
13.5 x 10.5 inch gelatin silver print, printed circa 1980
Framed to 26.5 x 22.5 inches
Signed on verso
Berenice Abbott's "New York at Night" is one ...
Category
1980s American Modern Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
23rd Street, 7th Avenue (from the series A Story of the New York Subway)
By Kazuo Sumida
Located in New York, NY
11 x 14 inch gelatin silver print.
Edition 15. Signed on verso.
Kazuo Sumida first visited New York in 1995. He found the city to be one of “both bustle and silence,” particularly the underground world of the subway, where he encountered “a place full of characters.” By 2002, he had produced a large body of work of images taken in this subterranean metropolis – tender scenes of lovers and children; gritty portraits of beggars for whom the subway is home; artists, musicians, commuters, and others who pass through the tunnels on their daily journeys. The resulting monograph, A Story of the New York Subway, was published in 2002.
Sumida was born in 1952 in Kochi Prefecture in southern Japan. Although photography was not his formal career, Sumida has pursued the art throughout his life. He graduated from Osaka Photography Graduate School in 1983, and also studied at the International Center of Photography in New York, on a fellowship from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs. He lives in Japan, and continues to visit New York frequently.
His work has been shown at the Tokyo Ginza Kodak Photo...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
A Train (from the series A Story of the New York Subway)
By Kazuo Sumida
Located in New York, NY
11 x 14 inch gelatin silver print.
Edition 15. Signed on verso.
Kazuo Sumida first visited New York in 1995. He found the city to be one of “both bustle and silence,” particularly the underground world of the subway, where he encountered “a place full of characters.” By 2002, he had produced a large body of work of images taken in this subterranean metropolis – tender scenes of lovers and children; gritty portraits of beggars for whom the subway is home; artists, musicians, commuters, and others who pass through the tunnels on their daily journeys. The resulting monograph, A Story of the New York Subway, was published in 2002.
Sumida was born in 1952 in Kochi Prefecture in southern Japan. Although photography was not his formal career, Sumida has pursued the art throughout his life. He graduated from Osaka Photography Graduate School in 1983, and also studied at the International Center of Photography in New York, on a fellowship from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs. He lives in Japan, and continues to visit New York frequently.
His work has been shown at the Tokyo Ginza Kodak Photo...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
West 28th Street (from the series A Story of the New York Subway)
By Kazuo Sumida
Located in New York, NY
14 x 11 inch gelatin silver print.
Edition 15. Signed on verso.
Kazuo Sumida first visited New York in 1995. He found the city to be one of “both bustle and silence,” particularly the underground world of the subway, where he encountered “a place full of characters.” By 2002, he had produced a large body of work of images taken in this subterranean metropolis – tender scenes of lovers and children; gritty portraits of beggars for whom the subway is home; artists, musicians, commuters, and others who pass through the tunnels on their daily journeys. The resulting monograph, A Story of the New York Subway, was published in 2002, and this image appeared on the cover.
Sumida was born in 1952 in Kochi Prefecture in southern Japan. Although photography was not his formal career, Sumida has pursued the art throughout his life. He graduated from Osaka Photography Graduate School in 1983, and also studied at the International Center of Photography in New York, on a fellowship from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs. He lives in Japan, and continues to visit New York frequently.
His work has been shown at the Tokyo Ginza Kodak Photo...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Kuroiso City, Tochigi Prefecture (#0177)
By Toshio Shibata
Located in New York, NY
32 X 40 inch gelatin silver print, edition 10
Framed to 42 x 49.75 inches, in white frame
Signed, titled, dated and editioned on label verso.
OTHER SIZES AVAILABLE - PLEASE INQUIRE.
...
Category
1980s Contemporary Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Smith College
By Alfred Eisenstaedt 1
Located in New York, NY
This vintage gelatin silver print is signed, titled, and dated by the artist on verso, with artist stamp.
Category
1930s Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
