One, Two, Three, More

"Oh, to have the brilliant eye of the late photographer Helen Levitt. These photos, taken between 1934 and 1946 (and most never published before), bring a grubby, gritty New York City to life. Women sit on stoops reading the newspaper, or prop their elbows on a window ledge with a pillow for comfort, keeping watch on the action below. Children play in the streets with makeshift toys: a bag filled with flour, a nub of chalk, a piece of string. Life then – before television, before air conditioning – was lived on the street, and Levitt was right there, a sly and sharp observer. Each one of these images is a marvel."