A visual history of resistance in New York City
- Text by Miss Rosen
- Photography by Builder Levy
Builder Levy enrolled in Brooklyn College in 1959 with the dream of becoming an Abstract Expressionist, but the work didn’t resonate the way he hoped it would. Photography, however, made perfect sense. “It allowed me to get more involved with life,” Levy says.
Growing up in Bath Beach, a predominantly Jewish and Italian neighbourhood, Levy lived in a housing development built by Donald Trump’s father, Fred. Living through the Jim Crow 1950s, fraught with the spectres of McCarthy and the Cold War, Levy was sensitive to the struggle of people of colour and the working class, becoming politically aware and engaged at a young age.
“I started taking the camera with me to street demonstrations,’ Levy remembers, recognising the importance of amplifying the fight against oppression and injustice.
Inspired by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt, and Roy DeCarava, Levy used his camera to address the systems of oppression, honoring those leading the fight including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and the Black Panther Party, as well as the everyday people living through the height of the Civil Rights movement in New York.
Girls at the Gate, Herkimer Street, Ocean Hill
“My mother was born on the Lower East Side on Rivington Street, and I was down in that area looking for the humanity in the streets,” Levy says. “The humanity I was seeing and exploring, trying to capture in my pictures – I looked at as a way of countering all this negativity.”
It’s a message and a perspective that speaks half a century since, a story beautifully composed in the new exhibition and book, The Photographs of Builder Levy: Humanity in the Streets. The works in the show were selected by students at Pratt Institute, a fitting tribute to Levy who previously worked for Pratt’s Planning Department, taking photographs documenting the work done by local organisations to help save and rehabilitate old buildings in Bedford Stuyvesant.
Photography connected Levy with the community in more ways than one. As a New York City teacher, he set up photography workshop programs in Ocean Hill Brownsville, Bushwick, and the Lower East Side, empowering students to engage in the community and express themselves.
Malcolm X Speaking, Labor union/civil rights rally in support of the New York City school boycott, Upper East Side, Manhattan, 1964
Humanity in the Streets is a love letter to Brooklyn from its native son, one that keeps the faith through the storms that come. It is a reminder that the power of the people is within our grasp, a lesson Levy learned in his youth.
“Before I picked up the camera, I found Freedomways and thought it was a great political journal,” Levy says. “I asked if I could sell it, and they said yes. I made 25 cents each copy I sold and it was a big thrill for me.”
When he began making photographs, Freedomways published his work – but it was only in returning to his archive more than half a century later that, Levy unearthed never-before-seen gems like an image of Malcolm X smiling with joy.
It makes the perfect companion image to one of Levy’s masterworks: the group portrait of the Medallion Lords, a chance shot that happened when one of the teens casually called to Levy, “Hey Parkie, take our picture!” – never knowing this moment would become one for the ages.
Pigeon Cloud, Central Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn, 1987
Medallion Lords, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, 1965
Kingfish, Dekalb Avenue, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, 1965
Fulton Street, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, Labor Day, 1965
Coney Island Couple, Coney Island, Brooklyn, 1963
March on Washington, 1963
Snow on Melrose Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn, 1981
The Photographs of Builder Levy: Humanity in the Streets is on view at the Brooklyn Historical Society through August 11. Humanity in the Streets New York City 1960s-1980s was just published by Damiani.
Follow Miss Rosen on Twitter.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
The last days of St Agnes Place, London’s longest ever running squat
Off the grid — Photographer Janine Wiedel spent four years documenting the people of the Kennington squat, who for decades made a forgotten row of terraced houses a home.
Written by: Isaac Muk
As salmon farming booms, Icelanders size up an existential threat
Seyðisfjörður — The industry has seen huge growth in recent years, with millions of fish being farmed in the Atlantic Ocean. But who benefits from its commercial success, and what does it mean for the ocean? Phil Young ventures to the remote country to find out.
Written by: Phil Young
How Japan revolutionised art & photography in the ’60s and ’70s
From Angura to Provoke — A new photobook chronicles the radical avant-garde scene of the postwar period, whose subversion of the medium of image making remains shocking and groundbreaking to this day.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Artifaxing: “We’ve become so addicted to these supercomputers in our hands”
Framing the future — Predominantly publishing on Instagram and X, the account is one of social media’s most prominent archiving pages. We caught up with the mysterious figure behind it to chat about the internet’s past, present and future, finding inspiration and art in the age of AI.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The lacerating catharsis of body suspension in Hong Kong
Self-Ferrying — In one of the world’s most densely packed cities, an underground group of young people are piercing their skin and hanging their bodies with hooks in a shocking exploration of pain and pleasure. Sophie Liu goes to a session to understand why they partake in the extreme underground practice.
Written by: Sophie Liu
What we’re excited for at SXSW 2026
Austin 40 — For the festival’s 40th anniversary edition, we are heading to Texas to join one of the biggest global meetups of the year. We’ve selected a few things to highlight on your schedules.
Written by: Huck
