Levitt, Helen

(born Aug. 31, 1913, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died March 29, 2009, New York) U.S. photographer. She began her career in photography at age 18. Her first show, “Photographs of Children,” was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943. It featured the subject matter—children, especially the underprivileged—and humanity that characterize much of her work. In the mid 1940s Levitt collaborated with the novelist James Agee, filmmaker Sidney Meyers, and painter Janice Loeb on The Quiet One, a prizewinning documentary about a young African American boy. For most of the 1960s she concentrated on film editing and directing. Levitt resumed her pursuit of photography in the 1970s. Books of her photography include Mexico City (1997), Crosstown (2001), Slide Show (2005), and Helen Levitt (2008).

Find more information on Levitt, Helen. Upgrade to Britannica Online for more on Levitt, Helen.