Laurence Miller Gallery Exhibition                                                                                  June 5 - August 14, 2008

 Henri Cartier-Bresson | Helen Levitt  Side by Side


For the very first time Henri Cartier-Bresson and Helen Levitt, both internationally recognized twentieth century masters of street photography, will be exhibited side by side. 

Helen Levitt, at 95 years old, is considered by many the greatest living  photographer within the tradition of the street photograph, of which her friend Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) is perhaps the acknowledged master.  Despite his being French and she being a New Yorker, they shared a sensibility rich in the poetic drama of the street and sophisticated in the formal nuances of the frame. Each photographer quickly received significant recognition within only a few years of their first making photographs.

Many wonderful juxtapositions of photographs by each will be shown: Cartier-Bresson’s children playing among the ruins in Seville share the energy and formal complexity found in Levitt’s boys playing with branches in a vacant lot in Spanish Harlem. A near perfect pairing juxtaposes Cartier-Bresson’s boy carrying a wine bottle (Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954) along side Helen Levitt’s woman holding milk bottles (New York City, c. 1945). It is interesting to note that the Levitt was taken about a decade before the Cartier-Bresson.

Less formally connected, but perhaps more emotionally tied, are Cartier-Bresson’s picture of a man jumping over a puddle (Behind the Gare St. Lazare) and Levitt’s child sticking her face out of a baby carriage ( New York City ). Two perfect moments of joy.

Though Cartier-Bresson took pictures around the globe while Helen Levitt stayed close to home, it was in Mexico and New York City where their metaphorical paths crossed. This connection is one of the rare times when they both photographed in the same place and the juxtaposition of the images each made shows them at their closest.  

  Section 2 of 2
  (click image for detail view)

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Helen Levitt
New York, c.1940
14 x 11" silver print, pr. later

 

 

 


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Henri Cartier-Bresson
Lorraine, France, 1959
11 x 14" silver print, pr. later

 

 

 


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Henri Cartier-Bresson
Two Old China Hands
Shanghai, c.1949
13 1/4 x 9 1/8" vintage silver print

levitt_sbs28.jpg (147122 bytes)

Helen Levitt
New York, c.1942
14 x 11" silver print, pr. later

 

 

 

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Helen Levitt
New York, c.1939

14 x 11" silver print, pr. later


 

 

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Henri Cartier-Bresson
Palais Royal, Paris, 1959
14 x 11" silver print, pr. later

 

 

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Helen Levitt
New York, c.1938
14 x 11" silver print, pr. later

 

 

 

hcb_sbs32.jpg (67064 bytes)

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Tivoli, Italy, c.1933
14.5 x 9.75" silver print, pr. c.1950


 



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Henri Cartier-Bresson
Sumatra, Indonesia, 1950
9 3/4 x 14 5/8" silver print, pr. 1950s

levitt_sbs34.jpg (58977 bytes)

Helen Levitt
New Hampshire, 1983

11 x 14" silver print

 

 

 

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Helen Levitt
New Hampshire, 1983

11 x 14" silver print

 

 

 

 

hcb_sbs36.jpg (47428 bytes)

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Banks of the Marne
France, 1938
11 x 14" silver print, pr. later

 

 

hcb_sbs37.jpg (35072 bytes)

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Spain, 1933
6 3/4 x 9 3/4" silver print, pr. 1960

 

 

levitt_sbs38.jpg (63332 bytes)

Helen Levitt
New York, 1971

11 x 14" dye transfer print pr. later

 

 

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Helen Levitt
New York, 1980
20 x 24" type-c print
pr. later

 

 

 


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Copyright Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos. Courtesy Fondation HCB. Copyright Helen Levitt. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.