Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1942

“the photograph suspends an instant of time; conjoining urban space and gesturing bodies, it infuses an arresting sense of solemnity and grace into a scene from everyday life. Positioned between home and street, private and public, the real and the fantastic, the three children are experimenting with alternate identities afforded by the most rudimentary of props—a piece of cloth with eyeholes cut out to make a mask. Their play is marked by an ephemeral artfulness, an emphasis on the act of viewing, and an urban context; it thus presents an emblem of the street photographer’s practice: they, too, are heading out into the city, flâneur-style, to partake of strange spectacles.” (Child’s Play in Helen Levitt’s Early Photographs)