What do you think?
Rate this book
Here and There
“…Helen Levitt is one of the living treasures of New York, widely admired for her devotion to candid street photography in a style influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans…[Her] vignettes of domestic, daily city life, taken on the Lower East Side and in Harlem, are a form of poetry that evokes the fortitude and forbearance of New Yorkers past and present.”
—Andy Grundberg, The New York Times Book Review
Selected as the best photography book of 2001 by The New York Times Book Review, The Village Voice , and Photo-Eye , among others, Helen Levitt’s magnum opus Crosstown (powerHouse Books 2001) all but sold out of its one and only, six-thousand-copy print run.
Here and There is Levitt’s new collection of personally-selected images a charming monograph featuring over ninety never-before-published photographs, including portraits of her friends James Agee and Walker Evans. The recently discovered photographs featured in Here and There represent Levitt’s own favorite images selected from her immense private collection. Shot over seven decades, Here and There reveals Levitt’s acute sense of how cosmetically street life has changed—and how substantially it has remained the same. The sheer determination of this inimitable photographer to walk the streets of her beloved city for this length of time and take pictures of what she saw, reaffirms her unofficial status as New York City’s visual poet laureate.
“[Levitt’s photographs] have the quality of frozen street-corner she went out, saw something wonderful, came home to tell you all about it, and then, frustrated, said, ‘You had to be there,’ and you realize, looking at the picture, that you were.”
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
—Andy Grundberg, The New York Times Book Review
Selected as the best photography book of 2001 by The New York Times Book Review, The Village Voice , and Photo-Eye , among others, Helen Levitt’s magnum opus Crosstown (powerHouse Books 2001) all but sold out of its one and only, six-thousand-copy print run.
Here and There is Levitt’s new collection of personally-selected images a charming monograph featuring over ninety never-before-published photographs, including portraits of her friends James Agee and Walker Evans. The recently discovered photographs featured in Here and There represent Levitt’s own favorite images selected from her immense private collection. Shot over seven decades, Here and There reveals Levitt’s acute sense of how cosmetically street life has changed—and how substantially it has remained the same. The sheer determination of this inimitable photographer to walk the streets of her beloved city for this length of time and take pictures of what she saw, reaffirms her unofficial status as New York City’s visual poet laureate.
“[Levitt’s photographs] have the quality of frozen street-corner she went out, saw something wonderful, came home to tell you all about it, and then, frustrated, said, ‘You had to be there,’ and you realize, looking at the picture, that you were.”
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
- GenresPhotographyNonfiction
120 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Helen Levitt
23 books8 followersHelen Levitt was an American photographer and cinematographer. She was particularly noted for her street photography around New York City. David Levi Strauss described her as "the most celebrated and least known photographer of her time."
A retrospective exhibition of Levitt's work, In the Street, was shown at The Photographers' Gallery in London from October 2021 to February 2022.
A retrospective exhibition of Levitt's work, In the Street, was shown at The Photographers' Gallery in London from October 2021 to February 2022.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 12, 2015
I think I first heard of Helen Levitt in relation to Vivian Maier somehow. I can't remember if she was mentioned in one of the Vivian Maier photography books, if it was a random computer-generated recommendation, or if I did research, so sadly I can't track back to see for sure why I added this to my tbr. Nevertheless, I went in with the idea that these photographs would be in some way similar to Vivian Maier's. (Whether that's fair or not I don't know.)
I think the big similarity here is that both women were street photographers who worked largely in urban settings and primarily in black and white. But Helen Levitt has a more journalistic, gritty, documentary style to my eye. She seems to be making a record of life in New York. Not necessarily by photographing the big New York scenes or events, but by noticing everyday life. The rundown buildings, the tired people, the children at play. It's the children at play part that most often shines for me. The documentary style by its very nature can make her photographs feel removed or less immediate, but that's never a problem in her photographs of children. They're curious and stare right into the camera, or wrapped up in their own feelings or games and don't even notice it. There's a freedom and spontaneity there that brings them to life just that tiny bit more. They engage me. But all of her photos are interesting, and I'm glad I got to know her work a little. I have another ILL of her color photographs coming up, and I'm curious how they compare.
I think the big similarity here is that both women were street photographers who worked largely in urban settings and primarily in black and white. But Helen Levitt has a more journalistic, gritty, documentary style to my eye. She seems to be making a record of life in New York. Not necessarily by photographing the big New York scenes or events, but by noticing everyday life. The rundown buildings, the tired people, the children at play. It's the children at play part that most often shines for me. The documentary style by its very nature can make her photographs feel removed or less immediate, but that's never a problem in her photographs of children. They're curious and stare right into the camera, or wrapped up in their own feelings or games and don't even notice it. There's a freedom and spontaneity there that brings them to life just that tiny bit more. They engage me. But all of her photos are interesting, and I'm glad I got to know her work a little. I have another ILL of her color photographs coming up, and I'm curious how they compare.
November 18, 2018
A collection of black and white photographs of New York City by this memorable photographer. These images will become increasingly valuable and important since they depict the life on the streets of our largest city at a time in the past.
Read
June 5, 2024levitt's work inspires me (endlessly) and this monograph is no exception, though the foreward by adam gopnik was especially superb.
June 24, 2026
Refreshing and hilarious
June 20, 2026
Thoroughly enjoyed this one; be sure to check out many of the photography classics on the internet archive (https://archive.org); freely available for all, just subscribe with your email and digitally 'borrow' any go the innumerable works available.
August 17, 2007
Helen Levitt.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews