Discover Helen Levitt (Photofile) by François Hébel, a handsome volume from the celebrated Photofile series—purveyors of beautifully made, eminently collectible introductions to the world’s great photographers. Each book presents a curated gathering of a photographer’s most iconic and representative images, printed in rich duotone or color, accompanied by an illuminating introduction and tidy bibliography.

This edition turns its gaze to Helen Levitt, born in Brooklyn in 1913 and beloved for her perceptive, poetic photographs of New York City. Her lens captured the choreography of everyday life—children chalking sidewalks, neighbors gossiping on stoops, the quiet magic found on an ordinary block—and in doing so, she inspired generations of photographers, collectors, and admirers.

Levitt’s work first graced the walls of the Museum of Modern Art in 1943, with a second solo exhibition there in 1974. Since then, her retrospectives have traveled the globe, appearing at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the International Center of Photography, and the Centre National de la Photographie in Paris.

A splendid introduction to an artist who turned city streets into poetry.