Levitt, who lived in Mexico in 1941, had a vision that captured a city and its inhabitants on the cusp of modernity, with neither sentimentality not romanticism. This is a collection of photographs from this period.
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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
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