New York City, c. 1942
Gelatin silver print
7 ⅞ × 11 ⅞ in.
Signed, titled, and dated in pencil on verso
October 13, 2025
Great artworks, in their perfection, exist in their own category. You know them when you see them. Like this photograph by Helen Levitt, which exceeds photography's capacity for freezing a moment—three city kids emerging from a brownstone on Halloween—and appears to exist in several moments at once. As our eyes scan from left to right, moving from the child donning the mask, to the languid descent down the step, to the child surveying the street from the handrail, we seem to be seeing a study in time and motion. The soft, even autumn light that falls on the scene gives the figures a sculptural frieze-like quality, emphasizing the rich tableau of miniature body language.
