New York (child fleeing fire hydrant spray), 1939

Helen Levitt was an American photographer and cinematographer. She is one of the most influential street photographers of the 20th Century. Helen Levitt spent decades documenting local communities in her native New York, capturing everyday city life in neighbourhoods such as the Lower East Side, Bronx, and Spanish Harlem. Working from the 1930s through the 1990s, Levitt produced an extensive body of work consisting of a variety of projects and mediums. After briefly working with a commercial portrait photographer, Levitt began to devote herself fully to photography in 1936. Inspired by a meeting with the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, she began to unobtrusively document the residents of her local neighbourhoods with a 35-mm Leica camera, rendering everyday scenes into a theatrical spectacle. Strongly influenced by surrealism and silent film, Levitt also explored the uncanny elements of the everyday, often capturing people in strange poses alongside surreal juxtapositions of people, places, and things. This print is beautifully mounted and framed in a black wood frame. Outside frame dimensions are 38 x 45 x 3.5 cm. Please allow 3-4 weeks for shipping.

This work is part of our exhibition “Seen Not Heard: Photographs of Children 1865-2023”. This special exhibition is in aid of children; a percentage of the sale price for each print sold (varying between 10% and 100% f or each print) will be donated to Save the Children Fund, a registered charity in England and Wales (2130890), Scotland (SC039570) and Isle of Man (199). Please see exhibition catalogue for detail.