rachel lau

Photography Essay: Helen Levitt

Her work is mainly focused on street photography. Her photos that are on children are my favourite. The way she captures the emotions and expressions are phenomenal. She originally dropped out of high school to work as a commercial photographer. She taught art class to children in 1937.

In the first photo, the emotions the child are expressing are very evident. The way she framed the body of kid draws a lot of attention to his face. The colours in this photo are stunning, the subdued tones of pale blue create a composition that draw all the attention to the boy’s skin tone since it contrasts. To me, the picture conveys a strong story. It makes me ask about why the boy is looking like that. Did someone say something that made him feel bad? This picture is very thought provoking.

In the second photo, of the toddler and the kid staring at the window has a comical feeling. The toddler has marker all over his face. The way the drawn aspects make his face look weird and lopsided. In the other half of the photo, the boy is looking very sheepishly into the distance. This photo shows the playfulness of childhood.

The last photo is my favourite of them all. The grungy setting behind the vendor and the lady creates a gritty feeling. The emotions of the two ladies is captured very well in this photo. The thing that stands out the most is the billboard behind them. It gives the viewers the sense of time. The retro style of the board is aesthetically pleasing

For the photo I chose to represent her style is the one below because of how it looks. Even though she has many faces in her photos I chose not to include a face. I did this because the body language translates just as well. The background of my photo also gave it its timely feeling. She also often has many photos that are in line with the rule of thirds, which my photo also follows.