Helen Levitt

From 19 February to 17 May 2026, the MAPFRE Foundation. Recoletos Hall will present an exhibition that brings together around 200 photographs by the American photographer, Helen Levitt in a comprehensive review of her career and her unique vision of the world which she gained throughout her career.

In a career spanning more than seven decades, Helen Levitt (1913-2009) developed an exceptional perspective on 20th-century urban life. Fascinated by the daily pulse of New York, Levitt captured seemingly insignificant details—children's games, faces, routine gestures—and elevated them to poetic images with social significance. This exhibition brings together around two hundred photographs through nine sections, offering a comprehensive overview of her visual language, from her early work to her more mature period.

Renowned for her commitment to social reality, Levitt was a pioneer among female photographers, and her photographs enter into a dialogue between documentary sensitivity and subtle lyricism. In this exhibition, her aesthetic exploration at the intersection of the intimate and the urban, the spontaneous and the carefully observed can be appreciated.

Image Credit:

Helen Levitt. New York, c. 1939 © Film Documents LLC, courtesy of Zander Galerie, Cologne