Lisa Levine

SOMEWHEREIn this series I am working with the notion of place. My sense of the places I know and the places I discover is constructed from an amalgamation of different sights and experiences over time. The works in this series are complex compositions that describe fragments of information, time, and space. I combine these fragments to formulate my impression of a place because I find that no one image alone can describe the sensation of place for me. I must construct it from multiple parts of my experience. I have devised a method of drawing with digital photographic information that I use to layer image upon image as I build up the surface of the image. ; Often an image will be buried within the work, only hinting at its form. It is these layers, each with their traces of objects that intrigue me. They are a way of covering and uncovering, a way of seeing and then seeing again. I use a flattened perspective so that multiple views and locations are densely compressed within a complex surface. The picture plane becomes a vibrant, kinetic space where many different views come together in a landscape without perspective. The industrial landscape, power plants, shipyards, shipping ports and vibrant cities are most appealing to me. These places have a unique aesthetic, sense of color, and rhythm that I find fascinating. TopographiesIn the Topographies works I have also used the grid as a point of departure. Here, the nature of these fluid constructions presents a discourse of contradictions- micro and macro, time and timelessness, and the containment of things that cannot be contained, movement that cannot be stilled. The grid lends geometry and so tends to "rationalize" or abstract what would otherwise be mainly pictorial. I am filling a vast expanse, a kind of landscape, without perspective. I refer to the idea of topography, a description or an analysis of a structured entity showing the relations among its components, as a format in which I can keep small details and still make a space that could go on and on, like the ocean itself. When we look at the world we assemble small views into a large idea like "the ocean.” We can't see it all at once; at least not the way we know it. My views construct the whole from its parts.

Lisa Levine has always been captivated by the magic of photography, drawn to how it allows one to pause the flow of time and deeply savor the beauty of the visual world and its fleeting moments. She is fascinated by the transformation that occurs when she frames a scene with her camera, extracting it from its original moment and placing it into a new context.Lisa Levine's work brings together numerous moments, each with its own unique characteristics, into a cohesive whole. She employs a technique of layering images to both obscure and reveal elements beneath the surface, capturing the transient essence of time, light reflections, and movement. Her approach suggests a space that encompasses both what is above and below the surface, merging the present with memory into a unified experience.In her creative process, Lisa combines digital drawing with photographic data to produce images that feature a compressed perspective. These works reflect elements of time through complex compositions that convey fragments of information, time, and space. Just as our perception of time is constructed from small intervals like hours, days, and weeks, Lisa's images assemble these fragments into a broader understanding of life.Lisa’s formal study of photography began at the High School of Art and Design in NYC, where she took a first-year rotational Photography course that included both studio and darkroom work. Enthralled by the medium, she pursued a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in NYC and an MFA from the City University of New York at Brooklyn College.