Prospect Park

A master of American street photography, the New York–based artist Leon Levinstein captured the fleeting gestures and movements of people around him in raw, unforgiving images. “In my photographs I want to look at life,” he said, “at the commonplace things as if I just turned a corner and ran into them for the first time.” Levinstein honed his craft by taking classes with Alexey Brodovitch, then art director at Harper’s Bazaar, and Sid Grossman, cofounder of the Photo League, a progressive photographic cooperative. Taken in Brooklyn, this photograph exemplifies Levinstein’s aggressive approach, its cropped figures emphasizing his proximity to his subjects. Attentive to the discreet displays of intimacy in a public space, he homed in on the woman’s hand lightly resting on the man’s thigh and the couple’s intertwined legs.