I levitated with Helen Levitt in November 2021 in London as reported here. It was an opportunity offered to discover a magnificent Helen Levitt retrospective at the equally magnificent Photographers’ Gallery in Soho, tracing her decades-long observation of everyday life on the streets of New York, from the 1930s to the 1990s. Influenced at times by Henri Cartier-Bresson but unmistakably developing her own surreal and candid style, Levitt’s work ranges from black-and-white street scenes and subway portraits to her vibrant colour photographs of the 1970s, making this exhibition a beautiful tribute to a true grande dame of photography. This time around, the Kunshal Rotterdam, together with the powerful Fundación Mafpre, does it again with a huge (220 photos) exhibit under the title “City at Play”. It is an enchantement to browse through Levitt’s pictures taken mainly in New York and Mexico City throughout her long career. Simple street scenes, people captured in their everyday activities, including sticking a finger in the nose, playing with the water hydrants on a hot afternoon, or gazing around with a superior air in the subway. We smile, we admire the framing, we enjoy the pictures, simply.
