Alain Levitt

By: Andrea Longacre-White | August 01, 2008 | Art Profile

      It was in 2000, following his move from Los Angeles to New York City, that Alain Levitt started photographing his life downtown. It began first with friends and street scenes, and late nights of debauchery into the harsh rays of mornings after. I first met Alain at the Hole, the now infamous nexus of art, skate and street delinquency. Every Saturday night there he’d be, behind the bar, till the wee hours of the morn slinging drinks, laughs and light bulb flashes.
Though his personal style of photography has evolved since those early days, it’s his relentless street search, his eye for the spontaneous moment and small but telling detail, which continues to be a hallmark of his image making. He poetically captures and juxtaposes children in eerily mature melancholic moments alongside his peers indulging in youthfully exuberant and irreverent excesses. As I wrote in a description for an upcoming group show at Capricious Space in New York, “His photographs of situations askew become slices of a narrative never fully revealed yet marked by violent traces and hints of humor.”
Though he continues to refine his approach, his subject matter has persisted: portraits of people falling into rhythm with their environment with both subtlety and aggression. Even the darkest of Levitt’s street visions, however, carry a fondness, a sense of affinity with his subjects, which reveals a continually hopeful silver lining.
      Over the years Alain has used magazines as the outlet for his work, having contributed pieces to publications such as ANP Quarterly, Vice, Mass Appeal, Tokion and V. Last year marked the publication of his first book, A Reluctant Heir, through Forsythian Press, which will release his second book, Promissory Note, later this year. 

 

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