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By
Francine Prose (introduced by) and
Helen Levitt (photographer)
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Bibliographic Detail
Publisher
Power House Books
Publication date
December 1, 2001
Pages
189
Binding
Hardcover
Book category
Adult Non-Fiction
ISBN-13
9781576871034
ISBN-10
1576871037
Dimensions
1 by 9.75 by 11 in.
Weight
3.50 lbs.
Availability§
Publisher Out of Stock Indefinitely
Original list price
$150.00
§As reported by publisher
Amazon.com says people who bought this book also bought:
The New West | The Documentary Impulse | Harry Gruyaert | Multitude, Solitude | Helen Levitt | The Suffering of Light | The Leica M Photographer | Bruce Davidson | On Reading
The New West | The Documentary Impulse | Harry Gruyaert | Multitude, Solitude | Helen Levitt | The Suffering of Light | The Leica M Photographer | Bruce Davidson | On Reading
Summaries and Reviews
Summary
Capturing the diverse culture and street life of New York with pioneering photographs, from 1930s Harlem to black-and-white images from the 1980s and 1990s, a stunning collection pays homage to this acclaimed photographer.
Amazon.com description: Product Description: Since the mid-1930s, Helen Levitt has photographed life on the streets of New York, capturing the pulse of the city at moments when sidewalk life becomes an urban portrait. Crosstown is the most comprehensive monograph devoted to this master photographer. In pioneering pictures of 1930s and 1940s Harlem, an innovative color series completed in 1960, and black-and-white images from the 1980s and 1990s, the book reveals the changes in New York street culture as well as the evolution of Levittâs photographic eye.
From Francine Proseâs introduction to Crosstown: Photographs by Helen Levitt:
Look at a Helen Levitt photo, and the city streets, subways, and rooftops become pure Helen Levitt. Encountering Levittâs pictures, taken mostly between 1936 and the present, mostly around Manhattan, is like taking off your sunglasses, or cleaning your spectacles, or just blinking, which is only appropriate, since so many of them seem to have been taken in a blink, and to picture something that will be gone, that was gone, a blink after it was taken. These photographs radically readjust our visual fine-tuning to remind us of how rapidly everything changes, of how large a fraction of what we see wonât exist in its present form only a heartbeat from now. Itâs impossible not to notice that the beautiful gypsy kid, caught in mid-motion in the doorway of his apartment, was disappearing even as his portrait was being takenâ¦.
The photographs in Crosstown make the difficult look easy. They seem so effortlessly right that itâs only when you think for two seconds, or recall all the bad documentary photography that youâve seen, or pause to marvel at the high wire act theyâre performing even as they focus steadfastly on the ground, that you realize how frighteningly simple it would be to get all of this terribly wrong, to make the children cute and the old ladies darling. Helen Levittâs work is never sentimental, it never estheticizes or objectifies, never turns its subjects into art objects, never distorts them into noble heroes of poverty and desolation; it is never falsely, preemptively elegiac or nostalgic. You never feel the artist calling attention to herself or to the breadth and compassion of her vision. Everything is happening too quickly â and too interestingly â for anything remotely resembling self-conscious artiness, or narcissism.
From Francine Proseâs introduction to Crosstown: Photographs by Helen Levitt:
Look at a Helen Levitt photo, and the city streets, subways, and rooftops become pure Helen Levitt. Encountering Levittâs pictures, taken mostly between 1936 and the present, mostly around Manhattan, is like taking off your sunglasses, or cleaning your spectacles, or just blinking, which is only appropriate, since so many of them seem to have been taken in a blink, and to picture something that will be gone, that was gone, a blink after it was taken. These photographs radically readjust our visual fine-tuning to remind us of how rapidly everything changes, of how large a fraction of what we see wonât exist in its present form only a heartbeat from now. Itâs impossible not to notice that the beautiful gypsy kid, caught in mid-motion in the doorway of his apartment, was disappearing even as his portrait was being takenâ¦.
The photographs in Crosstown make the difficult look easy. They seem so effortlessly right that itâs only when you think for two seconds, or recall all the bad documentary photography that youâve seen, or pause to marvel at the high wire act theyâre performing even as they focus steadfastly on the ground, that you realize how frighteningly simple it would be to get all of this terribly wrong, to make the children cute and the old ladies darling. Helen Levittâs work is never sentimental, it never estheticizes or objectifies, never turns its subjects into art objects, never distorts them into noble heroes of poverty and desolation; it is never falsely, preemptively elegiac or nostalgic. You never feel the artist calling attention to herself or to the breadth and compassion of her vision. Everything is happening too quickly â and too interestingly â for anything remotely resembling self-conscious artiness, or narcissism.
Editions
Hardcover
The price comparison is for this edition
With Francine Prose (other contributor), Helen Levitt (other contributor) |
from Power House Books (December 1, 2001)
9781576871034 | details & prices | 189 pages | 9.75 × 11.00 × 1.00 in. | 3.50 lbs | List price $150.00
About: Capturing the diverse culture and street life of New York with pioneering photographs, from 1930s Harlem to black-and-white images from the 1980s and 1990s, a stunning collection pays homage to this acclaimed photographer.
About: Capturing the diverse culture and street life of New York with pioneering photographs, from 1930s Harlem to black-and-white images from the 1980s and 1990s, a stunning collection pays homage to this acclaimed photographer.
Paperback
from Flare (June 1, 1993)
9780380762262 | details & prices | 4.25 × 6.75 × 0.50 in. | Rec. grade levels 7-9 | 0.20 lbs | List price $3.50
About: After her family moves to the 'wrong' side of town, April, a popular cheerleader at her old high school, finds herself in a very different place, but she soon learns to adjust and discover a whole new world
About: After her family moves to the 'wrong' side of town, April, a popular cheerleader at her old high school, finds herself in a very different place, but she soon learns to adjust and discover a whole new world
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