Helen Levitt (1913–2009) was an American street photographer and filmmaker renowned for her poetic and spontaneous documentation of everyday life in New York City. Born in Brooklyn to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, she began her career in a portrait studio in the Bronx at age 18. Inspired by the work of Henri-Cartier Bresson, she purchased a 35-mm Leica camera and began capturing the gritty reality and beauty of urban life, particularly focusing on children in underprivileged neighborhoods like Spanish Harlem and the Lower East Side. Her work is characterized by its humanity and keen sense of composition. In addition to her photography, Levitt was an accomplished filmmaker, collaborating on documentary projects such as 'The Quiet One' and 'In the Street'. She received Guggenheim Fellowships in 1959 and 1960 to investigate color photography techniques.[1,2,3]
