As a teenager, Helen Leavitt left school to work in a portrait photography studio in the Bronx. She was inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson to buy a Leica miniature camera, which she took onto the streets to make candid photographs. During the Depression Leavitt was a children’s art teacher and she became fascinated by their special world. She began to photograph kids playing on the streets of New York. This contact print of an African American boy waiting on a corner, is typical of Levitt’s enigmatic photographs. Perhaps 11 or 12 years old, he is dressed in a T-shirt and dungarees that are typical of a boy his age. His overly long belt suggests that he may wear hand-me-down clothes, however he is clean, and his hair recently cut. He may be waiting for a friend as he leans on a fire hydrant at a sunny street corner. Deserted streets emphasize how this boy is alone in his thoughts.

from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)