Helen Levitt, Green Car, 1974

Remembering the inimitable American photographer Helen Levitt, born on this day 109 years ago. Having begun her career as a commercial portrait photographer, Levitt changed tack after a chance encounter with the legendary street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, which inspired her to turn her lens to the various neighbourhoods of her native New York and the characters that populated them. Earlier this year, Levitt’s extraordinary street scenes were the subject of an enlightening retrospective at the Photographers’ Gallery in London, including this marvellous shot of a young girl and a pea-green car.