Helen Levitt

That image of the little girl playing in the water in the gutter, against the green car is perfection in balance while retaining a complete off-kilter wackiness to this eye.
 
I read about this on the Online Photographer earlier today. Sad news indeed.

Her colour stuff is great, but I've always liked this picture a lot:

link
 
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I think that person balancing on the green car, crouched in the gutter is relieving herself. Got to go ...

But maybe I am wrong ...
 
Interesting how the articles differ in one major point:

Spiegel:
"Der große Lehrmeister der 1913 in New York geborenen Levitt war Henri Cartier-Bresson, einer der wichtigsten Fotografen des 20. Jahrhunderts."
Translates as: The great teacher of the New York born Levitt was HBC one of the most important Photographers of the 20th century.

New York Times:
"In 1935 she met Cartier-Bresson when he spent a year in New York. On one occasion she accompanied him when he photographed along the Brooklyn waterfront."

But both agree in one point:
Spiegel: Ein Jahr später kaufte sie sich ihren ersten eigenen Fotoapparat, eine Leica..., eigenständig zu fotografieren. One year later she bought her first camera a Leica ...

NYT:In 1936, she bought a secondhand Leica, the camera Cartier-Bresson favored.
 
She will be MISSED....
I adore her work
I do HOPE there will be a Retrospective of her work at MOMA here in NY
 
You know what I really liked about her work? Her sense of humour. It is difficult to express that in street photography and she did it with such ease.....
 
Requiescat in pace. Her B&W work from "A Way of Seeing" still ranks among the best street photography ever made. She will be missed.
 
I learned a great deal from her photos. And she really captured my parents' and grandparents' New York, which I still remember from visits as a little kid in the mid-50s. She was one of the greats, for sure. She was also not interested in self-promotion. And reclusive. I wonder why.

--Peter
 
There's a wonderful book of her work that was just published in 2008 by Powerhouse Books. It shows her b & w and color work. It may be out of print but new copies are still available at a reasonable price.
 
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