Untitled Possibly 2008 - 2013

David Levinthal made this large photograph, sometime after 1949, using photographic processes. The blurring and the close cropping means that the image is built through atmosphere. The dark figurine set against the orangey-yellow feels heavy. Is it a toy soldier? I wonder, does it matter? The way Levinthal handles the medium is what’s important, the balance between soft focus and defined line. I keep coming back to the figure's head; it seems like a void, a space for projection, like a painter's canvas before the first mark. The way the light catches it, almost blindingly, suggests not just presence but also absence, the way memories can simultaneously feel so real and yet slip away. I find it fascinating how a picture that flirts with abstraction can also feel so weighted with narrative potential. Maybe it’s a nod to artists like Gerhard Richter, who blurred the boundaries of photography and painting, challenging our notions of realism and representation. Ultimately, it's about the push and pull, the conversation, and the questions that good art provokes.