April 26–May 2, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 11
Building a movement: Builder Levy documented this anti-Vietnam War protest in New York City.
The street shooter
New photo exhibit explores life in 1960s Brooklyn
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
His photos bring Brooklyn into focus!
A new art exhibition will showcase
a famed photographer’s gritty images
of Kings County during the Civil
Rights Era. “The Photographs of Builder
Levy: Humanity in the Streets,” opening
on April 26 at the Brooklyn Historical
Society, captures the city’s physical
and cultural transformation through
the lens of a Brooklyn-bred shutterbug,
according to the president of the
Society.
“Builder’s photos are from the ’60s
and ’70s, but they are certainly relevant
today, in a time that we are feeling the
push-and-pull of all kinds of political
forces around us, and racial inequities
that have continued to plague us,” said
Deborah Schwartz. “It is very exciting
to have a photographer that is focused
on these issues.”
Levy’s work is an essential historical
record of the turbulent era, according
to Shwartz.
EXHIBIT
“His photographs cover a huge
amount of territory, from everyday life
to the really politically charged events
of the 1960s,” she said. “He became interested
in the way photography allowed
him to focus attention on the civil rights
movement, the Vietnam protests, the
March on Washington, and street life
in Brooklyn in the 1960s.”
The photographer, who now lives in
Florida, will be at the Historical Society
on May 2, along with fellow photojournalist
Brian Palmer, for a conversation
on documenting politically
charged movements through the camera
lens.
The exhibit was created in collaboration
with the Pratt Institute, with
students from a museum curation class
choosing the images on display, according
to their professor.
“The subject was chosen by the
Historical Society, so it was given to
us, but it was a good one,” said Karyn
Zieve. “We went and visited with him.
We looked through his work, and read
about him. We learned about the history
of photography at the time, and
really created a narrative and sentence
about his work.”
The 12-student class searched
through hundreds of Levy’s photos,
choosing 30 images that would create
a visual narrative about his life and his
work. Zieve said the group attempted to
capture both Levy’s artistic activism,
as well as his chronicle of the changing
New York landscape.
“He took photos of civil rights, social
activism, anti-war political activism.
But, at the same time, he took a lot of
photos on the streets of Brooklyn as it
was changing,” she said. “So, we really
blurred the lines between his activism
and his documenting of the city.”
“The Photographs of Builder
Levy” at the Brooklyn Historical
Society 128 Pierrepont St. at Clinton
Street in Brooklyn Heights, (718)
222–4111, www.brooklynhistory.
org. On display April 26–Aug. 11;
Wed–Sun, noon–5 pm. $10 suggested
donation.
Builder Levy
Where culture
is king
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