Beginning in the 1930s, Helen Levitt wandered throughout New York City capturing the spirited play of children on the sidewalks of the poorer neighborhoods of Harlem and the Lower East Side. She worked as unobtrusively as possible with her handheld Leica, sometimes using a right-angle viewfinder to capture her subjects unawares as they took part in their imaginary games and masquerades. Shooting in both black-and-white and color, Levitt shared with her contemporaries Ben Shahn and Walker Evans a keen sense of timing and an intuitive ability to catch the telling gestures and postures of people interacting with one another in public spaces.

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