Stu Levy

Golden Gate Bridge #176 (Sailboat & Shadow), 1994 by Stu Levy
Stu Levy: Golden Gate Bridge #176 (Sailboat & Shadow), 1994

A landscape is usually a visual image with reference to natural vistas, but the makers of some visual images use the natural vista as a source of visual poetry.

Stu Levy’s lyrical and metaphorical transformations are photographs about interactions of mind, body, and soul.  They bring responses to the land, which are directed by Levy’s manipulations of light by the use of photography’s multiple means of control, which engage us in new visual, emotional, and metaphysical experiences.  These are a means to meditation, upon which, what we feel and think about our lives in a world of nature: transformed by light, dark, and texture; a personal introspective metaphorical transformation directed by Levy’s total immersion of self into time and space, an immersion given to us; inviting us to continue the process for the sake of our own being.

Nature is Levy’s preliminary source material, which is manipulated by his feelings and sensibilities.  The manipulation is a complex activity: starting with a direct vision which is then transformed to a mental/emotional vision, directed by his search for internal contact with an un-named source.  The development proceeds through Levy’s control of his massive knowledge of the manipulative means available to him via the medium of photography, the primary means being light.  Light is observed, then transformed by the filter, exposure, and composition.  Levy’s projection and interpretation of light directs his control of photography’s time and lens factors.  This is the beginning.  Development continues as light continues to be manipulated in all the photographic stages following exposure.  Light is played out, negatively and positively, in the darkroom, during the process of abstracting and transitioning from the inspirational nature that was used as a source of light and dark.  Poetry and prose play in the mind of the artist as he simultaneously works and feels.  The past engages the present in the optical chemical making of the new visual expression.

The result, is then a poetic visual presentation of Levy’s blending of internal/external experiences of light-light which is used both by Nature and Levy for an unending human transformation.  Like the musician and the poet, Levy gives us the means of transporting ourselves into our own complex mixture of internal/external events.  Think of listening to a symphony as you gaze upon Levy’s visual presentations.

Part of Carl Chiarnza’s foreword in Stu Levy’s publication Photographs 1979-2013

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