Prospect Park

<p>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 <em>Harper’s Bazaar,</em> 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.</p>