To Helen!

page 85, Slide Show Helen Levitt

"I wanted to be a photographer because I wanted to be an artist and I couldn't draw."

What a wonderful thing, to live to be 95. To have made a body of work which not only stands the test of time but can be discerned as seminal. Still collected, still taught. Slide Show is a testimony to her spirit, unbroken by circumstantial hardship, as much as her artfulness and skill. She received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1959 and 1960 to make color photographs of the New York streets and neighborhoods she had so thoroughly caressed in black and white starting in the 40's. In 1970 the majority of that work was stolen from her apartment and she had to start again. What a wonderful thing to start again. What a wonderful thing to have left us an image of implied abject sadness consoled by a gentle hand. Inviting us to attend (unlike the men in the distance) to the fragility being played out, with the advertisement with the hand holding the egg serving as scenic backdrop to this moment of human drama. A long life and a long career, what a wonderful thing.

Improvised City: Helen Levitt's New York, an article from the November 19, 2001 issue of The New Yorker by Adam Gopnik is a highly entertaining and enlightening way to offer a toast.