Helen Levitt, “New York”, c. 1940

 

The photo I chose to analyze is Helen Levitt’s “New York”. The reason I chose it was because it gave me the feeling that it was just so quintessentially “New York”, even 70 years ago. The thing about living in a huge city with millions of people is that it is impossible to know everyone. You could be surrounded by more people than a small town and all of them could be strangers. You could go spend an entire day wandering New York and not encounter a single person you know. The dichotomy of New York is that the more people you live amongst, the less people you really know. In “New York”, subject is in the foreground, seemingly isolated. It is hard to distinguish whether they are male or female (though I would guess make going by the hat). He is isolated on the foreground, but the background is bustling and full of people. It really gives me that feeling of the dichotomy I spoke of earlier. Also, it’s just so 1940s New York in terms of style and architecture and technology. I don’t know, it’s kinda nostalgic. I just like it.

In terms of composition, the rule of thirds is pretty obvious here. The subject is along the third line dividing the image vertically. The street takes up two thirds of the bottom while the buildings and people, the background take up the upper third. The lines of the street are also running to the bottom left intersection of a thirds grid to the upper right, which also makes your eyes focus on the subject. Levitt also gave the subject some room in the foreground to walk to, and angles it so the street and the background doesn’t go through the subject itself.

This photo made me think about my ideas about New York and how my photo is going to reflect that. I’ve lived here my entire life, so I may or may not be biased in one way or another. Anyways, in terms of framing my shots… I knew about the rule about not having your subject disturb your subject, but giving them space to move and the rule of thirds was interesting and new. I think it’s something I try to do unconsciously sometimes (having a photographer as a dad has to rub off a bit of skill, right?!), but you don’t always get the chance and time to position something exactly right.

Also, to Macaulay – October 11 is a Sunday, not a Saturday, update your summaries and emails before you copy/paste them, jeez.

 

-Jessica Ng