Helen Levitt: 1913-2009

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.

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

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

[...] 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 [...]