Photographer: Helen Levitt

1. Photographer: Helen Levitt Media 175 Principals of Digital Photography Presented by: Erika Hershey November 5, 2013

2. An American documentary photographer Levitt grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She dropped out of school, and taught herself photography while working for a commercial photographer. Levitt taught some classes in art to children in 1937, and she became intrigued with the transitory chalk drawings that were part of the New York children's street culture of the time. She then purchased a Leica camera and photographed these works as well as the children who made them. The photographs then appeared in 1987 as In The Street: chalk drawings and messages, New York City 1938–1948. Named as one of the "100 best photo-books", first-editions are now highly collectable. Levitt studied with Walker Evans during 1938 and 1939. 1943 Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art curated her first solo exhibition, after which she began to find press work as a documentary photographer. In the early 1950s she briefly became a film director, working with James Agee. 1959 and 1960, she received two Guggenheim Foundation grants to take colour photographs on the streets of New York but much of this work was stolen in a burglary. Her first major book was A Way of Seeing (1965). 1976 she was a Photography Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts. She has remained active as a photographer for nearly 70 years and still lives in New York City.

3. New York c. 1940 Photo by: Helen Levit

4. Street Drawing: 1940 Photo by: Helen Levit

5. New York c. 1942 Photo by: Helen Levit

6. New York c. 1942 Photo by: Helen Levit

7. New York c. 1942 Photo by: Helen Levit

8. New York c. 1945 Photo by: Helen Levit

9. New York c. 1940 Photo by: Helen Levit

10. Untitled c. 1942 Photo by: Helen Levit

11. The End Resources: http://www.masters-of-photography.com/L/levitt/levitt2.html http://www.masters-of-photography.com/L/levitt/levitt_articles1.html