Underwater world photographed in black and white? You could think that such an approach minimizes the beauty of seascapes and marine animals. But in fact, Wayne Levin photographs enhance their uniqueness, and give a more fictional look to the underwater world.
Born in Los Angeles, in 1945, Wayne Levin became passionate about photography when his father gave him a brownie camera, and a kit to develop films for his 12th birthday. Much later, he attended Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, but left Brooks in 1964, as being motivated to participate in the Civil Rights movement.
He joined the Navy and after his discharge, in 1968, he decided to travel around the world, documenting his travels through photography. In the early 70s he was hired as an assistant for Hawaii photographer Robert Wenkham and in 1976 decided to continue his education majoring in fine art photography at the San Francisco Art Institute.
In 1980 Mr. Levin attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York and in 1984 he received a National Endowment for the Arts Photographers’ Fellowship for his underwater photographic studies of surfers. His work has been exhibited world wide at galleries including Tokyo Designer Space, Japan; New York University, Tisch School of Art Gallery, New York City; Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco; Louis Stern Fine Arts, Los Angeles; Rosenberg & Kaufman Fine Art, New York; Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach; High Museum, Atlanta; and the VIP room of the American Pavilion at the World’s Fair, Japan. Nowadays he is planning to release two books, with work from Kalaupapa and snapshots with the schooling fish Akule.
