Contemporary Photography of Joel D. Levinson: After Eden
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Untitled #82 (Man with Guitar) |
Joel D. Levinson's most current body of contemporary photography, which is from the 1983-1999 period, has only just been released in then past year. A new book, entitled "After Eden", is expected to be published in the near future.
This new all-color oeuvre covers the English Gardens in Munich, Germany--a park known for its public-clothing-optional policy. The images detail the generally accepting and casual nature of people to the nudity in this park, largely desexualizing the context. This desexualization is fairly unique in contemporary art circles.
In 1983, while arranging exhibitions and publications of his Fleamarkets Series (see the other special exhibit on Levinson) in Europe, Levinson stumbled across a park in the middle of Munich, known as the English Garden. Besides being one of the most
beautiful places Levinson had ever been to (secluded forests, open valleys, rapid rivers, lakes with boats, huge beer gardens with hundreds of people...) it was the people's casual to oblivious attitude towards nudity that literally shook him.
In Levinson's words: "When I encountered the English Garden, I found a world I didn't know existed anywhere on this earth. Why is the English Garden unique? Words can only begin to explain. This haven is located in the middle of the city and people from all walks of life, cultures and nations are continuously passing through it. Above and beyond the park's physical beauty, are the people, whose freedom, friendliness and virtually complete unconsciousness of clothing or the idea that one is nude or naked I found to be genuinely sensual and inspiring, even if that was not their intention."
From the years of 1983-1998, Levinson made 11 trips to Germany spending approximately a month during each visit in Munich photographing the English Garden.
Making friends and socializing with many of the people he met at the English Garden allowed him to create photographs that only an insider, taken into the confidence of his subjects, could achieve.
This work is laser-printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper on two sizes of paper (20 x 24 in. and 30 x 40 in.), although the images are smaller due to specific cropping.
Photographs have already been placed in several major private contemporary photography collections.
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