Levitt grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Dropping out of school, she taught herself photography while working for a commercial photographer. While teaching some art classes to children in 1937, Levitt became intrigued with the transitory chalk drawings that were part of the New York children’s street culture of the time. She purchased a Leica camera and began to photograph these works as well as the children who made them. The resulting photographs appeared, to great acclaim, in 1987 as In The Street: Chalk Drawings and Messages, New York City 1938–1948. This image is a well-known work from that period. [https://www.1stdibs.com/art/photography/black-white-photography/helen-levitt-new-york-girl-crying/id-a_1895823/]