Month: April 2022

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Helen Levitt, the daughter of May (Kane) and Sam Levitt, was born in Benson Hurst, Brooklyn, New York. Her maternal grandparents and father were both Russian Jewish immigrants. She attended New Utrecht High School until 1931, when she quit out. She bought a Leica camera in 1936. (a 35 mm range-finder camera). In Levitt got fascinated by the ephemeral chalk drawings that were part of the New York children’s street culture at the time while teaching art lessons to children for the Federal Art Project in New York City in 1937. For her own creative project with the Federal Art Project, she began photographing these chalk drawings as well as the children who created them. In The Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages, New York City 1938–1948 was eventually published in 1987. Levitt resided in New York City for approximately 70 years and worked as a photographer. “I travel where there’s a lot of action,” she said, lamenting the change of landscape in New York City. Children used to be allowed to play outside. The streets are now deserted. People are either watching television or doing something else indoors.” Helen Levitt was well known for photographing children playing in the streets, for which she received widespread acclaim. She also concentrated her efforts in Harlem and the Lower East Side, with many of her subjects being minorities. There is a recurring theme in the film of youngsters playing games. She deviated from the standard approach of other prominent photographers when it came to portraying suffering in a journalistic manner. Instead, she chose to photograph her children’s chalk paintings to illustrate the world from their perspective. She frequently sets the camera and fashions the photo in such a way that the subject of her photography is the center of attention. Her decision to show youngsters playing in the street and to experiment with street photography goes against the tide of the time. Many of the working classes were denied access to these public spaces due to legislation implemented in New York at the time. In an attempt to regulate these groups, laws were passed that specifically targeted them.

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I believe the subject has a good personality based on the photograph. You can see that she really likes the color blue. She is wearing a blue sweater that looks to be knitted. She also chose to have a blue background, which adds to the photograph. The color blue represents calmness, peace, and tranquility. I believe this is true based off just how she looks and what the photograph gives off. She looks like a calm and collected person. This really adds to the vibe and feeling of the picture, and it shows her personality. For the lights, I believe that there was a light behind her. It had a gel in the back that had a blue color. There was also more flash techniques that were used. The subject had one light positioned on the left side, where there is more light aimed at her face. This gives a shadow effect, causing a more detailed and sophisticated look in the photograph. Overall, this is a really good photograph. This is one of my favorites when it comes to strobes and gels.