THE ART OF SEEING URBAN LIFE

Agee, James (1909-1955) with Photography of Helen Levitt

A Way of Seeing [NYC Street Photography]

Durham: Duke University Press, 1989.
HELEN LEVITT & THE POETRY OF THE SIDEWALK — THE QUIET DRAMA OF ORDINARY LIFE.
A pristine copy of the 1989 Duke University Press edition. This 'Third Edition' kept Levitt's work in print for a new generation of photographers, featuring corrected text and 20 additional photographs not found in earlier versions.

Key Features:
+++ Content: The definitive 'reader's edition.' It includes the seminal James Agee essay and an expanded selection of Levitt's 1940s street photography.
+++ Edition: Third Edition (1989), published in association with The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
+++ Provenance: From the library of Ben Raeburn, Levitt's former publisher at Horizon Press. It is significant that he retained this copy from the rival press in his personal collection.
+++ Visuals: High-quality duotone reproductions of children, masks, and street theatre in Harlem and the Lower East Side.

Physical Specs:
+++ Date: 1989
+++ Dimensions: 9 x 11.5 inches.
+++ Format: Stiff pictorial softcover wraps.

Condition: Fine -- Gift Quality. The wraps are bright and glossy with sharp corners. The binding is tight and uncreased. The pages are clean and unmarked. A superior copy of a book often found well-worn by students.

By 1989, Helen Levitt was no longer a 'rediscovered' artist but an acknowledged master. This Duke University Press edition marks the moment her work transitioned from the world of fine-press rarities (like the 1981 Horizon edition) into the academic canon.

Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies, this volume solidified A Way of Seeing as a required text for students of photography and sociology alike, ensuring that Agee's prose and Levitt's 'anti-journalistic' vision would influence the 1990s generation of artists.

Keywords: Helen Levitt, James Agee, Duke University Press, Street Photography, Documentary Studies, New York School, Harlem, 1940s Photography, Ben Raeburn Estate.

Item #21465
ISBN: 0822310058

Price: $110.00