Customer Reviews

Helen Levitt

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

... of HL's street photography (mainly). Well produced. The Walker Evans contribution is about one paragraph.

Well, if you're looking at this book, you probably know who Helen Levitt is and you can probably imagine the amazing photographs that are in this book.

Helen Levitt was one of the pioneers of street photography, a self taught photographer who eventually began working with Cartier-Bresson, another pioneer of street photography. Mind you, these two photographers represented REAL street photography, not the (pardon my language) crap we see today from the college kids running around with their $6,000 Leica that Mommy or Daddy bought them. Street photography, unfortunately, has become WAYYYYYYYY overdone and destroyed by people with no true "eye" for it. Now we just see photo after photo of homeless people, stray animals, homeless people with stray animals, etc. etc.

Anyway, sorry to get off topic a bit there. My point is, BUY THIS BOOK. This is REAL street photography where talent and hard work are demonstrated through these beautiful prints. And if you truly want to learn what real street photography is all about, this book is a great starting point.

I ordered 5 copies of this book! It was such a pleasure to see all the new images that have never been published. I love Evans forward (brief but articulate), and to see the genius of Levitt through the years makes this my favorite book to date in 2008! I couldn't recommend it more!

I found this book nearly as good as Crossroads, which is now going for $200+. The binding and reproduction quality is excellent. The only difference with this is a lack of a tipped in image on the front. I purchased 7 of these books. One of them was defective, and this sometimes happens, but Amazon is very amenable to returns and I'm going to send it back for a replacement. Amazon pays the return shipment. I own over 6000 photography books and this is well-worth the investment!

Book Arrived in time in excellent condition. The mention of Walker Evans name in conjuction with the book is a little decieving. There is only a short quote from him. I do like the simplicity of the book, no verbose self-important essays and keeping the photographs chronological history to a minumum.

Always thought Helen Levitt's photography was excellent, so I ordered this book. Upon receiving it I found two pages to be bent back at the corners, badly crimped. So, I returned it asking that a second copy be sent along with the reason I was returning it.

When the second copy arrived, it also had pages damaged & bent. Both had still been in the shrinkwrap, so it was something that apparently had happened during the production process of the book itself.

After the second copy was also damaged, I just asked Amazon to credit me back a refund. It's a hassle packing the book up twice, printing out return labels on the computer twice, taking it down to the post office twice (gas is $3.18 a gallon). One might think if Amazon really cared about customer service they would have taken a look at the second copy before shipping it to me, knowing the first copy was damaged.

I'll pick one up at a bookstore.

Ron Evans / Charlottesville, Virginia