Product Description

Esteemed American photographer Helen Levitt lived in Mexico City in 1941 and photographed the city's rapid urbanization and traditional ways of life, then struggling to coexist. Levitt's astute vision captured a city and its inhabitants on the cusp of modernity, with neither sentimentalism nor romanticism. Working almost exclusively in urban and semi-urban areas of Mexico City, she confronted directly the conflicts and juxtapositions that provided inescapable evidence of Mexico's presence in the modern world, and she did so with compelling force and dry wit. These images show street scenes in Chapultepec Park and other distinctly urban zones, as well as the working-class neighborhoods then on the periphery of the city. Over half a century later, her photographs unlock the past, helping to decipher the sprawling city of today. Most of these images have never before been exhibited or published.

The text is in both English and Spanish throughout the book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1785627 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 141 pages

Amazon.com Review
American photographer Helen Levitt--renowned for her honest, compelling shots of early industrial New York City--spent a good part of 1941 photographing Mexico City. The slices of life depicted in this collection of her work present a vision of a city becoming. Levitt focuses her acutely urban sensibilities on a city whose increased industrialization after World War Two brought tremendous social and economic change. Factories in central urban areas required people to leave rural homes for regular work and promises of "progress." Levitt's photographs frankly depict the juxtaposed traditions of rural life and industry for this new working class: women in homespun garments board trains, poor children dry machine-made clothes on cacti, and shawl-wrapped peasants carry daily newspapers. These beautifully printed images shed visionary light on modern Mexico City.

From Booklist
Movement, or more specifically, cinematic movement, the moving camera, is what Levitt's work suggests (see also her classic A Way of Seeing [1965]). Her images of Mexico City in 1941, a time when Mexico was at a historical crossroads, are quietly stunning. Whether the subject is merchants at market, beggars on street curbs, children making a game out of garbage, or well-heeled individuals strolling through a park, Levitt's lens seems to have captured more than the eyes can absorb. Like stills from a Bunuel film that was never made, Levitt's work isn't sentimental but is more exacting; she does not seek out but also does not shy away from brutal realities. Art historian James Oles' succinct and informative introduction, which reappears in Spanish after the plates, places Levitt's Mexico City images in context. This handsomely produced album is a worthy addition for the sake of Mexican history as well as photography. Raul Nino

About the Author
Helen Levitt lives and photographs in New York City. She received the International Center of Photography's Life Achievement Award in May 1997. James Oles is curator of the traveling exhibition of this work and is assistant professor of art history at Wellesley College. He has lived in Mexico City since 1991.