white Kodalith paper to convey the gritty feel of
war. To underscore the artificiality of his simulated
tableaux, Levinthal employed what would become
his hallmark techniques of ambiguous space, dra-
matic lighting, exaggerated blur, and selective focus
to obscure the boundaries between reality and arti-
fice.Hitler Moves Eastis considered a classic and an
early example of a postmodern photography book,
which influenced others such as Sherrie Levine, who
also photographed with toy figures, and Cindy
Sherman to stage tableaux and fabricated fictions
in their own work.
After graduating from Yale, Levinthal taught at
a succession of colleges including the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas, 1975–1976. Despite the critical
acclaim ofHitler Moves East, he felt uncertain
about his artistic career and returned to school in
1981 to earn a Management Science degree from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts. In 1982, he co-founded
New Venture, a public relations firm in Menlo
Park, California. In 1983, having established finan-
cial security, he sold his business, moved to New
York City, and was immediately included, along
with postmodern photographers James Casebere,
Sarah Charlesworth, Laurie Simmons, and others,
in his first group exhibition,In Plato’s Cave, at the
prominent Marlborough Gallery.
Inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper and
film noir, between 1984–1986 he producedModern
Romance. Working in the tradition of Lucas
Samaras, Levinthal used the instant SX-70 Polaroid
camera for the first time and created voyeuristic
photographs of figures in bedrooms, diners, and
on street corners. He also transmitted the scenes to
television via video and made photographs of the
scenes on the TV screen. During 1987–1989,
Levinthal used the mammoth 2024-inch Polaroid
instant camera for the first time to photographThe
Wild West.Inspired by the Western movies and
televisions shows he grew up with, this series depicts
tiny plastic cowboys and Indians in saloons and on
horses to address stereotypes and frontier myths.
Resembling film stills, his new photographic format
monumentalized the tiny toy figures, promoted
shallow depth of field, and created ambiguous scale.
Seduction and sex pervade Levinthal’s subse-
quent bodies of work. For American Beauties
(1989–1990), he posed voluptuous plastic pin-up
girls in bikinis on a beach of white sand but lends
an ominous twist to these 1950s glamour girls as
they pose against a menacing black sky. Levinthal
goes to sexual extremes inDesire(1990–1991) to
critique the stereotyping of women as submissive
sex objects. His use of heavy blur obscures explicit
detail, but the plastic Caucasian sex dolls from a
Japanese mail order catalog wear black leather, red
stilettos, and are blindfolded and bound for S&M.
The title of hisXXXseries (2000–2001) signals the
adult nature of his photographs of scantily clad
and nude women posing like porn stars and strip-
pers. Photographed with the 2024-inch Polaroid
camera, the 12-inch plastic dolls look almost life-
like in their pornographic presentation, but they
are representations of male fantasies and comment
on sexual stereotypes.
During the 1990s, Levinthal created his most
controversial work by examining the Holocaust
and racism. ForMein Kampf(1993–1994) he com-
posed figures of SS officers, Hitler, and nude con-
centration camp victims in chilling scenarios that
retell the brutality and horror of the Holocaust.
Even more controversial was his seriesBlackface
(1995–1996). Levinthal photographed his extensive
collection of black memorabilia, household objects
such as mammy cookie jars, lawn jockeys, and
Little Black Sambo figurines that stereotype Afri-
can Americans. ForBlackface, he avoided blur and
used the clarity of the 2024-inch Polaroid cam-
era to photograph these small racial objects in
extreme close-up.Blackfacewas to be exhibited at
the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia
in 1996, but the institution cancelled the exhibition.
Critics of the day questioned whether Levinthal was
being complicit or critiquing stereotypes in his
Blackfaceseries. His other series include:Die Nibe-
lungen (1993), Barbie (1998–1999, 20 24-inch
Polaroid),Netsuke(2002, SX-70 camera); andBase-
ball(2003, 20-by-24-inch Polaroid).
Levinthal exhibits in museums and galleries inter-
nationally, and his work is in the collections of lead-
ing museums around the world. Levinthal also
produces commercial photographs for Exposure
NY’s clients such as Absolut Vodka, IBM,The New
York Times Magazine,Men’s Journal,GQ,Enter-
tainment Weekly,Playboy, andWiredmagazines.
ElizabethK. Whiting
Seealso:Capa, Robert; Constructed Reality; History
of Photography: the 1980s; Instant Photography; Kru-
ger, Barbara; Polaroid Corporation; Postmodernism;
Representation; Representation and Gender; Represen-
tation and Race; Sherman, CindyBiography
Born in San Francisco, California, 8 March 1949.
Attended Stanford University, Palo Alto, California,LEVINTHAL, DAVID