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FIRST EDITION SIGNED BY LEVITT on the title page; a fine copy. James Agee collaborated with Helen Levitt on A Way of Seeing, writing the introductory essay. His words bring attention to the grittiness of Levitt's street photographs, taken in Harlem, Spanish Harlem, and the Lower East Side, all lower income neighborhoods of New York City from the late 1930's until 1948. Her photographs punctuate the reality of New York City with garbage on the streets, buildings in disrepair, and other signs of obvious poverty. But a slightly longer glance at Levitt's photos reveals a work dominated by children, and children, unlike adults, are less consciously burdened by poverty; they busy themselves with childhood's unassuming playfulness. Levitt opens the book with several photographs of sidewalk chalk drawings, the kind one sees daily on any suburban or urban street, thereby inviting us into a world of children. We soon meet the actual children photographed, who engage in all kinds of play, from dress up to imagination games, to hiding in boxes, to "I dare you" types of games. The adults are hidden away and do not appear until fairly late in the book. They aren't missed as adults add little to children's play. Even when the grownups insert themselves into the children's world, their photographs are dominated by the babies they care for, babies whose job in these pictures is to bring joy-no diaper changings and inconsolable crying here. Furthermore, the photos are frequently funny; it's hard not to laugh at children so heartily engaged in their important work of play. In their humor, we see Levitt, the filmmaker. Levitt spent much of her career in film and in these photos we often see the slapstick comedies of the silent film era that influenced her work. But we aren't laughing at her subjects, we are delighting in their play. Yet, the book is not so condescending as to elevate or mock poverty and its victims. The photos are punctuated by the insidious elements of poverty-a boy holding a gun, children playing (gleefully) in gutters or precariously balanced on roofs, empty lots covered in garbage. In part Levitt does with photographs what Angela's Ashes does with words-she offers an honest way of seeing that is unafraid to show us the dirtiness of poverty but also unafraid to show us the joyfulness of living. Parr & Badger, The Photobook, v1 252-253: Roth 178-179. New York: Viking Press, 1965. Oblong quarto, original cloth, original dust jacket. Small, neat early owner signature on front free endpaper. A FINE COPY. Original Cloth, Original Dust Jacket. Seller Inventory # 2855
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