Constructing Myths

by Suzanne Révy and Elin Spring

American myths are a powerful tool for politicians. They use them to whip up enthusiasm for a candidate or a potential law. Often, they seem designed to control those who are not part of the myth. Legends of the wild west and of the self-made man are potent ideas based on lore created largely in twentieth century movies and television. The artist David Levinthal has raised questions around these myths and their impact on American life in colorful still life photographs of toy soldiers, cowboys and gangsters throughout his long career. Selections from several of his projects organized by Barbara Hitchcock, independent curator and the former Curator of the Polaroid Collection, are currently on view in David Levinthal: America! America! Exploring History, Myth and Memory at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA. In the smaller galleries, the Griffin presents Silent Scenes by Stephen Albair and Philip Sager’s Veiled Actualities. All three exhibits are on view through June 5th, 2022. An online artist talk with David Levinthal is planned for May 10th at 7pm.

“Hitler Moves East” by David Levinthal 1972-5. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

While in graduate school at Yale in 1972, David Levinthal collaborated with a fellow student, Garry Trudeau, later known for the Doonsbury comic strip, in a series of pictures that began Levinthal’s long term fascination with utilizing toys and building scenes.  Their project, Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941-43 was published as a book in 1977. In making that work, Levinthal discovered that small, one or two inch, toy soldiers, cars or weapons took on profound vitality when photographed at close range with a shallow depth of field. He even set fire to a toy bridge and realized that his studio pictures of the destruction resembled documentary photographs of the aftermath of war. At the time, it was a radical shift for photography from the so called “truth” of the document to a constructed image as a simulacrum of history. 

“Wild West” by David Levinthal, 1986-88 (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

“Wyatt Earp” By David Levinthal from the series Wild West, 1986-88, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Levinthal turned his attention from history to myth, and he declares that his Wild West series “depicts the west that never was, but always will be.” As a boy, he enjoyed playing with small cowboy and Indian figures, using his blocks or models to set the stage for his imagination. Feeling nostalgic for his childhood, he began to rebuild those tableaus, and photographed them with a 20”x24” Polaroid camera. By enlarging the small figures he was able to create cinematic images on a grand scale, where the essence of the toy is erased in favor of a hyper-realistic sense of unreality. The sheer size of each picture seems to skewer the myth while enveloping it in saturated color.  

“Untitled” by David Levinthal, 2010-2018 from the series History, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Untitled” by David Levinthal, 2010-2018 from the series History, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

From the series Baseball by David Levinthal, 2003-4. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

From the series American Beauties by David Levinthal, 1989-1998. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

Inspired by American history, Levinthal also re-created iconic news photographs of Iwo Jima, the Kennedy assassination and the war in Iraq. He references gangsters from the depression era, and astronauts of the mid-century space race, alongside clichéd images of sports heroes from baseball and hockey. Smaller voyeuristic polaroids peek into our private lives, as the American Beauties gently preen for the camera. All these themes, the news, war, space, sports and sex loom large in the American psyche. Despite an unnerving undercurrent of objectification and political peril, we take indulgent pleasure in the mythic American narrative, and in viewing Levinthal’s sumptuous prints.

“Untitled” by David Levinthal, 1983-85 from the series Modern Romance, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Not Realized” 2022, from Silent Scenes by Stephen Albair, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA.

The work of two photographers who also stage their imagery is on display in adjoining spaces. Stephen Albair’s Silent Scenes occupy the Griffin Gallery. Like Levinthal, he employs vintage dolls and toys in his photographs, but the similarity ends there. Albair crafts sharply focused, complex and compressed tableaus with suggestive titles like “False Bloom” and “Beneath the Veneer.”  The use of rich colors and pixelated photographic collage seem at once cartoonish and sinister. Albair’s bizarre juxtapositions simultaneously reveal and conceal information, creating apprehensive internal dialogs. They seem to hover between dream and nightmare, insinuating submerged desires and mysterious, dystopic fantasies.

“Beneath the Veneer” 2012, from Silent Scenes by Stephen Albair, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Untitled #3” 2021, from Veiled Actualities by Philip Sager, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

In the Griffin Atelier Gallery, Philip Sager’s Veiled Actualities utilize reflections to create layered, in-camera scenarios that evoke multiple meanings. Optimizing his camera angle, Sager captures details of storefront windows whose inside surface has been papered, painted or otherwise obscured. Exterior landscapes are also mirrored in each facade. Sager’s arrangement of objects within the picture plane and emphasis on textural elements owe a debt to Aaron Siskind’s abstract expressionist photographs of painted walls and graffiti. But Sager’s double images interact. Contrasts in scale between closeup patterns of window treatments and overlaying reflected views of outside buildings and landscapes form inventive, often stormy narratives.

“Untitled #1” 2017, from Veiled Actualities by Philip Sager, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

For information about all three exhibits and associated programming, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/griffin-museum-galleries/

FEATURE IMAGE: “Lone Ranger” 2014 from America! America! Exploring History, Myth and Memory by David Levinthal, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA.