biography

David Levy (born in Landstuhl, Germany, 1962) is a Copenhagen, Denmark-based artist whose work has been widely exhibited and held in both public and private collections including: The Coleman Family Foundation, New Orleans Academy of Fine Art Collection, Palos Verdes Art Center, Muckenthaller Cultural Center, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Cal State Fullerton Gallery, The Gallery Store, Red Door Gallery, Stone & Press, BC Space, The Photographer’s Exchange, Cypress College Gallery, Metropolis Gallery, New Orleans Academy of Fine Art, University of Zurich, Wells Fargo Bank Collection, UBS and many others.

PHOTOGRAPHY WORK

David’s passion for photography began around the age of ten when his father took him to The Studio, owned by family friend and accomplished photographer Harvey Mendelson. This visit ignited a lifelong love for image making. He has self-published several books and produced a number of exhibition series, including the critically acclaimed Blue News – Random Selections portfolio, a social-political examination of the interrelationship between children's cartoons and television news which was also exhibited at the Muckenthaller Cultural Center with Andy Warhol and Annie Liebovitz. His series On the Road with Diana and Holga, is a collection made exclusively with vintage toy cameras, and Urban Nomad features writings and images focused on the urban experience. His full body of work includes landscapes, portraits, and street photography.

Southern California Photography Scene

David began his professional career as a freelance photographer specializing in fashion portfolios in Los Angeles. During the 1980s, he worked as a lab technician for Eastman Kodak in Hollywood and as a studio assistant at Warner Brothers. While studying communications and art history at the University of California, he met Jerry Burchfield and Mark Chamberlain, owners of BC Space Gallery in Laguna Beach, California. Initially, he assisted Jerry and Mark with The Laguna Canyon Project and The Tell, a multi year photographic documentary of the environmentally sensitive Laguna Canyon corridor. Working alongside Jerry in the darkroom, David honed his color and black-and-white photography skills becoming one of the world’s foremost experts on printing with the demanding Ilfochrome (Cibachrome) process. A highlight of his time at BC Space was being part of the team awarded the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for coverage of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Considered a master printer utilizing traditional and alternative processes, he built a reputation that led to collaborations with artists including Kenda North, Suda House, Bob Walker, Robert Heineken, Patrick Nagatani, Susan Turner, Mike Heinz, and Allan Sekula to produce exhibition quality prints.

The Big Easy

He later spent several years in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he continued exhibition printing, conceptual projects, and teaching. David also served as the Gallery Director of Stone & Press Gallery at Julia Street in the Warehouse District. Stone & Press Gallery (1988–2006) was an art gallery and publishing house in New Orleans, founded by Earl Retif and Ann Salzer. David introduced the gallery a new area of focus on photography and curated exhibitions including William Eggelston, Mandarin Montgomery, Glen Rogers Perotto, Andreas Serrano, William Greiner and many others. The gallery researched and published catalogues raisonné on both Frederick Mershimer and Jackson Lee Nesbitt. The gallery also collaborated with Carol Wax to curate the exhibition "Classical and Contemporary Mezzotints" at the New Orleans Museum of Art and worked with the Newcomb Art Gallery of Tulane University on an exhibition of Caroline Durieux and her Latin American associates titled "From Society to Socialism: The Art of Caroline Durieux."

In 2023, the Smithsonian Archives of American Art received a donation of records from 1921 to 2022, documenting the gallery's history through artist files, correspondence, photographs, invoices, printed materials, and artwork.