Houston Street, New York c. 1970 - 1980

Leon Levinstein made this black and white photograph, Houston Street, New York, with gelatin silver. It’s a dance of bodies frozen in motion. The main figure is mid-air, as if gravity forgot him for a second. Look at the way his body is cropped, how he towers over the other player – Levinstein probably got down low to get that angle. It reminds me of the work of Garry Winogrand or Lisette Model, these street photographers pushing the boundaries of composition and subject matter. I can imagine Levinstein walking around New York, always looking, always ready to capture these small moments, that energy, that chaos of urban life. He’s not trying to pretty things up, instead he captures the raw, unfiltered reality. It is interesting how a photograph can capture the energy, and in this way they are so similar to painting. Levinstein is part of a whole conversation about how to see, how to feel, how to make a moment last forever.