Exhibition Guide
Purchase Information
Exhibitions & Publications

Arthur Lavine, a native of Trenton, N.J., served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in the Pacific as a photo lab technician and non-combat photographer during World War II. He was a free-lance magazine photographer in New York City in the 1950's. His photographs appeared in Colliers, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Glamour, Newsweek, Fortune, Look, Life, Redbook, and other magazines. In these early years, he also studied photography with Lisette Model, Alexey Brodovitch, Berenice Abbott, and Clarence H. White, Jr.

He later spent four years as a staff photographer for Western Electric Company and then managed The Chase Manhattan Bank's Photo Department. During his 22 years there, he and his staff photographed for in-house publications, annual reports, press releases, exhibits, and other uses. His color and black and white assignments in the U.S. and overseas were extraordinarily varied and exposed him to a wide range of cultures and professions. Since 1992 he has lived in San Diego with his wife Rhoda.

His photograph of working hands from the Museum of Modern Art's "The Family of Man" exhibit and book (featured in the 1940's group) has been widely published. His pictures are in Helen Gee's book, "Limelight," about her famous 50's Limelight Photography Gallery and Coffeehouse in Greenwich Village. His images are in the permanent collection of The Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego and have appeared in five group shows there during the past two years. His photos are also in private collections and in the permanent collections of The International Center of Photography, New York City and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

In New York, his work was previously exhibited at the Kodak Gallery, Nikon House, Limelight, The Village Camera Club, and the Image Photographic Laboratory Gallery and, more recently, at the Howard Greenberg Gallery. In San Diego, his photographs have been shown at the Photo Factory Gallery, Mercy Hospital, the Framemaker Gallery, the Continuing Education Center at Rancho Bernardo, and the Computer Museum of America at La Mesa.

The Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York and the Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla handle some of his vintage prints of the 1940's and 1950's. A member and former officer of the American Society of Magazine Photographers (now Media Photographers) since 1951, he is a member of the ASMP San Diego Chapter. During the past few years, he has been photographing and building a body of contemporary black and white photos, including reportage, mood pieces and abstracts.

Lavine's approach in photography has generally been straightforward and journalistic. Always very conscious of forms, light and shadow, he looks for good design and sometimes places incongruous elements together in odd juxtaposition. He likes to photograph with existing light and to show people in action and in real situations. Usually working intuitively, rather than with deliberateness and planning, he moves around a lot to get the best compositions and to capture his subjects as spontaneously as possible.

All images are copyright Arthur Lavine.

Exhibition Guide
Purchase Information
Exhibitions & Publicationsn