David Levinthal – Semi-contemporary photographer

http://www.slate.com/id/3469/

David Levinthal was born in San Francisco, California in 1949. I was drawn to his work because of the lighting he used as well as the creative way in which he used toys to create the photographs. Additionally, I was inspired by Tori’s rendition of the ‘cows’ and from her pictures realized there is another way to look at photography other than just sunsets and portraits.

He obtained a degree in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981, an MFA in Photography from Yale University in 1973 a Bachelor’s of Art from Stanford University in 1970. He was also awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1995 and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1990-1991.^[1]

His photographs were created utilizing mostly large-format Polaroid photography. He created the pictures using aspects of American culture, Barbie, hockey, baseball, the Wild West and X-rated figurines. He has an excellent talent for creating the environment for the toys to make them appear to be real people, making the photo surreal yet realistic.

He uses shoeboxes, cardboard, and foam core to create the tiny offices, hotel rooms, war zones and old west to create an intimacy in small spaces, exploring different emotions and creating voyeuristic aspects to his work. His biography indicates that his work is inspired by his experiences as a child and pop culture of that time.

Levinthal indicates that "Toys are intriguing, and I want to see what I can do with them. On a deeper level, they represent one way that society socializes its young." Furthermore, Levinthal is aware of the power of toys: “Ever since I began working with toys, I have been intrigued with the idea that these seemingly benign objects could take on such incredible power and personality simply by the way they were photographed. I began to realize that by carefully selecting the depth of field and making it narrow, I could create a sense of movement and reality that was in fact not there.”

His creation of Blackface caused such a reaction and controversy at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia that the exhibition was canceled before it had an opportunity to open.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Levinthal