On any level Wayne Levin�s underwater photographs are magnificent images. A large part of this has to do with their poetic quality in which figures are consistently, no more or less, important than their environment. In one picture a large group of swimmers seen from below completely fills the picture plane and you recognize the figures for what they are. But more importantly this piece reads like a pattern painting; a grid seen from askance. There is a wonderful duality of repetitive rhythm presented here in which the swimmers are captured in actual motion. But their numbers and dark forms caught in the contrasts of the water create a different sense of motion; a rippling effect that is somewhat painterly and beyond straightforward narrative.

Wayne Levin, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Arts

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Wayne Levin, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Arts

Wayne Levin, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Arts

Look at the images of the vertical whale and the diver climbing down a rope. The singular presence of the figure is overwhelmingly strong in both of these photographs. But the juxtapositions catch you off guard: although the whale is recognizable as a whale it equally reads as a large undistinguished shape; the diver looks like a large fish of unknown origin due primarily to the exaggerated proportions of the fins but also reads as an abstract form. What separates these, and the other images, from merely becoming �nature� shots is how they are composed. The absence of color is another important factor in setting the stage for the dramatic changes found in the soft gradients of light and shadow that form the ground.  Because of this approach singular figures stand out in stark relief to engage the composition or the image is rendered atmospheric as it dissipates into patterns of black and white.

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