PHOTOGRAPHS
Levinthal, David
U.S. (1949 - )
Untitled (from the Hitler Moves East series)
1977
Gelatin silver print
9 x 11 3/8 in. (22.9 x 28.9 cm) image and sheet size;15 5/8 x 19 7/8 in. (39.7 x 50.5 cm) mount board size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.96

Based on a project he began in 1973, David Levinthal creates war photographs using setups of toy soldiers and small models. His fictions are based on true events but mass-produced toys are the surrogate actors in a drama he invents and stages. He mimics the blurred, imperfect quality of real war photographs taken under adverse conditions, and builds on known visual models that have been disseminated through the mass media: war films, documentary footage, and still images from magazines. One of the earliest examples of these full-scale studio creations was the collaboration between Levinthal and Garry Trudeau that resulted in the volume 'Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941-43,' published in 1977. -- Label copy for After Art: Rethinking 150 Years of Photography, December 4, 1994 to March 26,1995.

"I became intrigues at how seeming reality could be constructed from mere models. Over the more than 30 years that I have been working as an artist, I never ceased to be amazed at how much these figures and toys can tell us about ourselves." -- David Levinthal.