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conscientious photography magazine close search module search query conscientious photography magazine about archives open search module helen levitt one of the biggest misconceptions of so called street photography is that it can serve as a descriptor of the world mostly cities at large it simply can t any more or less than the rest of photography what it can do though is to serve as an expression of specific cultural notions especially in the context of the mid to late 20th century in the united states if you have followed my writing over the years you will have noticed that i ve mostly ignored street photography it s not that i mind it it s just that it mostly doesn t speak to me and its peak moment has also long gone as a genre street photography today is incapable of speaking to the larger moment we re finding ourselves in in any case the photographic conversation has long moved on street photographers are typically seen and treated as artists artists do not reproduce the world faithfully in fact that s exactly why we look to art not because it shows us something we can all see or feel but rather because it does the very opposite assuming it is well done ignoring the machismo that has been running through the genre another reason why i don t spent time with street photography i mostly find the conversations around this passé photographic genre lacking street photographers are not simply masters who magically line up the spectacle of city life in their frames if they were only that street photography would be little more than an exercise in photographic formalism which granted a lot of it is instead street photographers project their own vision onto the world around them and in that they re not any different than other artists but it s difficult to detect what exactly that vision is if you look at the discourse which is dominated by rather dated cultural references and by now equally dated ideas of cities themselves the aforementioned machismo has also influenced how we look at street photography as a photohistorical genre but history is not set in stone it can be corrected and re written and in part this is happening with and inside helen levitt a newly published book around this particular photographer speaking of levitt s photographs they give us a feminist vision of urban life elizabeth gand argues in one of its essays p 19 and there are additional aspects to them in particular in the photographs of children taken in harlem it s interesting to me how the various sources gand quotes project their own ideas onto the photographs and inevitably the photographer as does this writer herself but i personally would insist on seeing the photographer more than those whose faces and bodies she captured in the streets here is the thing about photography a photograph is made with intent the moment it is presented there are layers of additional intent heaped upon it it has been processed whether in a darkroom or in front of a computer and it has been consciously selected and placed into a specific context all of the decisions that go into the presentation of a photograph add up to if not conceal but at least diminish its actual information a portrait is not a likeness richard avedon once wrote the moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion this is why people often do not recognize themselves in the portraits taken of them by a stranger they re made to face someone else s opinion not their own avedon s statement is not only true for portraits it s true for almost all photographs except perhaps passport ones and that is how and why photography can be art because a photograph says more about its maker than about what it shows a skilled photographer such as levitt is able to distill her own vision into a view of the world that masquerades as one thing the world but that is quite another the photographer s opinion as expressed through fragments taken from that world in levitt s vision the urban life she faced often enough comes across as hostile with its protagonists the people in front of her camera making do with what they have to deal with the best they can children are particularly adept at doing this given that they combine a general sense of open playfulness with an unawareness of the unfairness that might be driving why their environs look the way they do the stage is set and thus the play unfolds one of levitt s well known photographs a colour one taken in 1976 shows a young girl suspended between a shiny green car and the curb it would appear that she is looking at something below her the viewer can t tell in order to get closer she crouched down and contorted her body in ways that evoke scenes from contemporary japanese horror movies in which the threshold between the human world and the world inhabited by wrathful spirits is defined by how a person might comport their body this particular photograph sits at at our own very real threshold between the world as it is because that s how it should be and the world as it treats us which people rather not talk about in many of levitt s photographs that threshold becomes amplified through the many contortions of bodies many people deserve better living conditions than the ones they are finding themselves in too often we take a world that is hostile by design for granted simply we accept to be told to keep our heads down helen levitt captures people s struggle under such conditions in addition there is a lot of looking in levitt s photographs but it s not a looking at something it s a looking away from something or from one another navigating a largely hostile world requires keeping to oneself in particular if one happens to be one of those people who do not share in the brutal machismo that drives one s living conditions helen levitt is a handsome book that gives this particular photographer the recognition she has long deserved a wealth of added material essays film still some contact sheets provides further insight into her work even as i feel that the emotions and opinions expressed in helen levitt s work deserve to be brought out a lot more in the essays in the end it s the photographs that do the talking for those willing and able to look and to listen there is much to take in helen levitt edited by joshua chang with additional contributions by elizabeth gand lauren graves monica bravo freya field donovan anne bertrand and joel sternfeld 304 pages thames hudson 2026 if you enjoyed this article please consider subscribing to my patreon there you will find exclusive articles videos and audio guides about the world of the photobook and more for those curious there now is the possibility of a trial membership for seven days much like journalism photography criticism involves a huge investment of time and resources when you become a subscriber you not only get access to more of my work you will also help me produce it including the free content on this site there also is a mailing list which i use to send out supplementary materials anything that has me inspired or that somehow seemed worth noting some of it is serious some is not you can sign up for free here thank you for your support general april 27 2026 share this article on twitter article permalink recently entendue the more i know about photography and the more i have become comfortable making my own photographs the more i feel the need to experience its interactions with other human activities in which the reality that surrounds us is captured in some fashion as a general april 13 2026 stay away from nothing a picture is worth a thousand words merriam webster states is used to say that it is often easier to show something in a picture than to describe it with words the adage is widely used including by photographers trying to avoid writing or talking about general march 30 2026 back to home about archives follow joerg colberg on twitter follow joerg colberg on instagram 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