Helen Levitt: New York - Couverture souple

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1633451208 ISBN 13 : 9781633451209

Editeur : Museum of Modern Art, 2021

Synopsis

A close reading of Helen Levitt's famous photograph of three children at play on a New York stoop

Helen Levitt's (1913-2009) photographs from the 1930s and 1940s of the communities of New York City's Harlem are startling achievements of street photography. They catch the evanescent configurations of gesture, movement, pose and expression that make visible the street as surreal theater, and everyday life as art and mystery. The unguarded life of children at play became, understandably, Levitt's particular preoccupation.

Levitt resisted political readings of her work, and distanced herself from the progressive impulses of social documentary photography. But class, race and gender are everywhere at work in Levitt's images. The diffidence and deceptive artlessness of the images also hide her devotion to both popular and avant-garde cinema, attention to the work of other photographers and frequenting of New York's museums and galleries. Here, Shamoon Zamir, Professor of Literature and Art History at New York University Abu Dhabi, examines the different registers and contexts of Levitt's work through a reading of New York, one of Levitt's iconic images.

A propos du livre

À propos de la quatrième de couverture

Helen Levitt’s photographs from the 1930s and 1940s of the communities of New York City’s Harlem are startling achievements of street photography. They catch the evanescent configurations of gesture, movement, pose and expression that make visible the street as surreal theatre, and everyday life as art and mystery. The unguarded life of children at play became, understandably, Levitt’s particular preoccupation. Levitt resisted political readings of her work, and distanced herself from the progressive impulses of social documentary photography. But class, race and gender are everywhere at work in Levitt’s images. The diffidence and deceptive artless of the images also hide her devotion to both popular and avant-garde cinema, attention to the work of other photographers, frequenting of New York’s museums and galleries. Shamoon Zamir examines the different registers and contexts of Levitt’s work through a reading of “New York, 1939”, one of Levitt’s iconic images.

Each volume in the One on One series is a sustained meditation on a single work from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. A richly illustrated and lively essay illuminates the subject in detail and situates the work within the artist’s life and career as well as within broader historical contexts. This series is an invaluable guide for exploring and interpreting some of the most beloved artworks in the Museum’s collection.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Museum of Modern Art
• Date d'édition: 2021
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1633451208
• ISBN 13: 9781633451209
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 48
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible