“CONFRONTATIONAL, ‘IN-YOUR-FACE’ STREET PHOTOGRAPHS”

LEVINSTEIN, Leon. Obsession. (Paris): Leo Scheer, (2000). Thick quarto, original gray cloth, original dust jacket, with silver-gelatin contact print, original box. $850.

Limited first edition of this retrospective collection of 196 images, number 84 of only 100 copies, accompanied by a numbered original silver-gelatin photograph entitled “Houston Street, New York” (circa 1969).

"Levinstein's photographs always steered clear of sentimentalism: his gaze moved around his subjects, composing without intervening… They transcend their own realism. A documentary expressionist with a practice firmly focused on its own concerns, Levinstein left witness and commentary to others" (Sam Stourdzé). His pictures are "confrontational, 'in-your-face' street photographs" (Parr & Badger, 235), raw, capturing both the brash energies of the street and the haunting resignation of its people. Levinstein formed a "photographic language that one could justifiably call the photography of isolation" (Stourdzé). Text in French and English.

Fine condition.