Heiress to Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans, Helen Levitt put together one of the most genuine portrayals of New York street life in the 1940s. Without attempting to create a social document, her images journey through neighborhood life and routines, often capturing surprising and fleeting moments, such as this mother—or nanny—whose upper body is hidden as she leans into a stroller in which a child is laughing, perhaps because he is being tickled.

Levitt incorporates a gaze that is full of emotion into her photographs by anticipating the most spontaneous moments that occur as life unfolds.