People Are Stranger

.I've been reading here and there about what looks to be a great exhibition at the Met of photographs by a little-known one-time Alexey Brodovitch protegé named Leon Levinstein.

Levinstein was included in Edward Steichen's famous 1955 exhibition The Family of Man at MoMA, but apparently had only one solo show before his death in 1988. There are no books of his work, which documents New Yorkers of all stripes, generally shot at angles suggesting the subjects were not often aware of Levinstein's presence. I will reserve my thoughts until after I hopefully see the show – it's up through mid-October – but at first glance the images remind me of how it felt when we first moved to New York; I didn't know that many people yet and while Emily was in law school and studying constantly in our grungy Hell's Kitchen apartment, I would walk around and check things out, get a slice, watch people on the street.

Click to read reviews by two of my favorite photography critics: Vince Aletti at The New Yorker and James Danziger at The Year In Pictures. More info on Hipsters, Hustlers and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein’s New York Photographs, 1950-80 at metmuseum.org.