Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein's New York Photographs, 1950–1980

Leon Levinstein... Street Scene: Man Glancing at Woman in Tee Shirt and Shorts, New York City (1970s, Gelatin silver print). From the exhibition Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein's New York Photographs, 1950–1980 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "...Leon Levinstein (American, 1910–1988), an unheralded master of street photography, is best known for his candid and unsentimental black-and-white figure studies made in New York City neighborhoods from Times Square and the Lower East Side to Coney Island. This exhibition, drawn exclusively from the Metropolitan's collection, will feature some forty photographs that reflect the artist's fearless approach to the medium. Levinstein's graphic virtuosity—seen in raw, expressive gestures and seemingly monumental bodies—is balanced by his unusual compassion for his offbeat subjects from the demimonde."