[both at 1 1/2  cols]

Henri Cartier-Bresson, “Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris,” 1932, © Magnum Photos. Courtesy Fondation HCB.

Helen Levitt, “NY,” circa 1940. Courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery.

FOR 5/23

HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON/HELEN LEVITT SIDE BY SIDE Laurence Miller Gallery

W/2 cuts set 5/13 ak/CD; #739453

NEW YORK CITY — For the first time Henri Cartier-Bresson and Helen Levitt, both internationally recognized Twentieth Century masters of street photography, will be exhibited side by side. The Laurence Miller Gallery will open the exhibit “Side-by-Side” on June 4, and it will run through August 18.

Helen Levitt, at 95 years old, is considered by many the greatest living photographer within the tradition of the street photograph, of which her friend Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) is perhaps the acknowledged master. Despite his being French and her being a New Yorker, they shared a sensibility rich in the poetic drama of the street and sophisticated in the formal nuances of the frame. Each photographer quickly received significant recognition within only a few years of their first taking photographs.

Many wonderful juxtapositions of photographs by each will be shown: Cartier-Bresson’s children playing among the ruins in Seville share the energy and formal complexity found in Levitt’s boys playing with branches in a vacant lot in Spanish Harlem. A near perfect pairing juxtaposes Cartier-Bresson’s boy carrying a wine bottle (Rue Mouffetart, Paris, 1954) alongside Helen Levitt’s woman holding milk bottles (New York City, circa 1945). It is interesting to note that Levitt’s was taken about a decade before the Cartier-Bresson.

Less formally connected, but perhaps more emotionally tied, are Cartier-Bresson’s picture of a man jumping over a puddle and Levitt’s child sticking her face out of a baby carriage. Two perfect moments of joy.

Though Cartier-Bresson took pictures around the globe while Levitt stayed close to home, it was in Mexico and New York City where their metaphorical paths crossed. This connection is one of the rare times when they both photographed in the same place and the juxtaposition of the images each may show them at their closest.

The Laurence Miller Gallery is at 20 West 57th Street. For information, 212-397-3930 or www.laurencemillergallery.com.