A Way of Seeing. Photographs of New York -
Helen Levitt, James Agee
1965 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition, of this important photographic work.
In 1945 Photographer Levitt and Pulitzer Prize winning author James Agee worked together in 1945 on a documentary film shot in Harlem, these photographs were taken on the streets of Harlem and the Lower East Side in the late 1930’s and 1940s, but the project remained unpublished until ‘A Way of Seeing’ in 1965.
In James Agee's words, ‘‘Levitt’s photographs seem to me as beautiful, perceptive, satisfying, and enduring as any lyrical work that I know… an uninsistent but irrefutable manifesto of a way of seeing, and, in a gentle and wholly unpretentious way, a major poetic work’.
‘Since its first publication in 1965, Helen Levitt’s collection of photographs taken on the streets of New York in the 1940s has been a classic of its kind. Produced in collaboration with writer James Agee, who provided the book’s introduction. Levitt’s focus on marginalized children and communities offers a compassionate perspective. His work also set a new standard for authenticity and poetic storytelling in street photography. A Way of Seeing remains a benchmark for those seeking humanity in their images.’ – The 50 Most Influential Photobooks of All Time – Blind Magazine, January 2025. ‘Maybe the most celebrated and least known photographer of her time’ – David Levi Strauss, 1997.
Helen Levitt (1913-2009) began photographing New York City street scenes in the late 1930s. Her photographs capture the dynamism of the urban environment, with a specific eye to the unconsciously choreographed play-life of children. Levitt’s pictures address the interaction in the urban theatre, and in particular document the resourceful nature of children as they create entire worlds from simple materials and their imaginations. In the 1970’s Levitt began photographing in color and proved herself as a gifted color photographer. A Way of Seeing, Helen Levitt, Slide Show, and In the Street number among her monographs. Her work is held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum, among many others. [Fraenkel]
James Agee was born in Tennessee in 1909 and graduated from Harvard University. His renowned study of Alabama sharecroppers during the Depression, 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men', appeared in 1941. Agee was known for his movie reviews and screenplays, and published a volume of poetry and a novella. He died in 1955, two years before his major work of fiction, A Death in the Family, was published and won the Pulitzer Prize.
References: Roth, Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, 178. Penguin Classics, web.
Large oblong octavo (book size 23.4x19.7cm), pp. [8] 8 [1] [63 (50 numbered black and white photographic plates)] 73-78 [2]. In publisher’s black cloth, spine and upper board lettered in white, brown-grey endpapers, dust jacket priced ‘$6.50’ to upper corner of front flap. Condition: Fine in near fine dust jacket with small loss to tail of spie, short closed tear to upper edge of rear panel, and minor rubbing to corners and spine ends. Ref: 112223 Price: HK$ 10,000
In 1945 Photographer Levitt and Pulitzer Prize winning author James Agee worked together in 1945 on a documentary film shot in Harlem, these photographs were taken on the streets of Harlem and the Lower East Side in the late 1930’s and 1940s, but the project remained unpublished until ‘A Way of Seeing’ in 1965.
In James Agee's words, ‘‘Levitt’s photographs seem to me as beautiful, perceptive, satisfying, and enduring as any lyrical work that I know… an uninsistent but irrefutable manifesto of a way of seeing, and, in a gentle and wholly unpretentious way, a major poetic work’.
‘Since its first publication in 1965, Helen Levitt’s collection of photographs taken on the streets of New York in the 1940s has been a classic of its kind. Produced in collaboration with writer James Agee, who provided the book’s introduction. Levitt’s focus on marginalized children and communities offers a compassionate perspective. His work also set a new standard for authenticity and poetic storytelling in street photography. A Way of Seeing remains a benchmark for those seeking humanity in their images.’ – The 50 Most Influential Photobooks of All Time – Blind Magazine, January 2025. ‘Maybe the most celebrated and least known photographer of her time’ – David Levi Strauss, 1997.
Helen Levitt (1913-2009) began photographing New York City street scenes in the late 1930s. Her photographs capture the dynamism of the urban environment, with a specific eye to the unconsciously choreographed play-life of children. Levitt’s pictures address the interaction in the urban theatre, and in particular document the resourceful nature of children as they create entire worlds from simple materials and their imaginations. In the 1970’s Levitt began photographing in color and proved herself as a gifted color photographer. A Way of Seeing, Helen Levitt, Slide Show, and In the Street number among her monographs. Her work is held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum, among many others. [Fraenkel]
James Agee was born in Tennessee in 1909 and graduated from Harvard University. His renowned study of Alabama sharecroppers during the Depression, 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men', appeared in 1941. Agee was known for his movie reviews and screenplays, and published a volume of poetry and a novella. He died in 1955, two years before his major work of fiction, A Death in the Family, was published and won the Pulitzer Prize.
References: Roth, Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, 178. Penguin Classics, web.
Large oblong octavo (book size 23.4x19.7cm), pp. [8] 8 [1] [63 (50 numbered black and white photographic plates)] 73-78 [2]. In publisher’s black cloth, spine and upper board lettered in white, brown-grey endpapers, dust jacket priced ‘$6.50’ to upper corner of front flap. Condition: Fine in near fine dust jacket with small loss to tail of spie, short closed tear to upper edge of rear panel, and minor rubbing to corners and spine ends. Ref: 112223 Price: HK$ 10,000