Leon Levinstein is best known for his photographic investigations of different New York neighborhoods: Times Square, the Lower East Side, and Coney Island in particular. An exhibition at the Steven Kasher gallery, on view until December 22, demonstrates Levinstein’s technical virtuosity and his contributions to the history of the medium.
Born in West Virginia in 1910, Levinstein moved to New York in 1946, where he spent the next 35 years taking pictures of strangers in the streets of his adopted city. Levinstein got close to his subjects, searching for a certain pose, a gesture, a scene. He framed the faces and movements of the citizens of New York: couples, children and members of high society, but also beggars, prostitutes and proselytizers.
