Carrie Levy is 32 years old and is currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY.

MOSSLESS: Your artist statement announces that your new work, You Before All, “questions the line that separates pain from pleasure”. What inspired this idea?
CARRIE LEVY: Well, it’s kind of hard to say what comes first. From what I can tell, the idea arrived after several photographs.  I was pretty confused after my last body of work Impaired. In fact, I created a whole other series that I refuse to show. I think what happened was that grad school made my practice too theoretical, too cerebral, and less intuitive.  I really wanted to go back to a more fluid place of making photos again. So the first things to change were re-introducing the face back into my work (sometimes) and shooting black and white so I would have more technical freedom.

I think having watched my father imprisoned continues to inform all of my practice. Observing someone else control his body both fascinated and frightened me. I watched him suffer through both physical and emotional pain. This experience is one of the reasons I am obsessed with my ability to control someone’s body with camera.

When I started shooting You Before All, I wanted three things: I wanted to shoot only men.  I wanted to work in black and white and I also wanted to shoot as many subjects as possible. What I learned from the first set of photos was that I was actually creating images in which it was hard to determine if my subjects were experiencing either pain or pleasure. It was not something I planned, but the relationship between these two very different emotional states intrigued me.  They are very much opposites, but in an instance it is hard to decipher between the two.  I liked exploring that emotional ambiguity.

ML: The work is a slight departure from some of your other work (save your monograph 51 Months) in which faces are mostly hidden and bodies are contorted. Much of that is still happening, but we are beginning to see more of the bodies of your subjects. Was this change prompted by the idea of pain/pleasure?
CL: It all started with my recent obsession with medical photography and forensic photography. The Associated Press was a source of creative inspiration. The Stanley Burns Archive, Weegee, Roger Ballen, Gregor Schnieder, Belinda de Bruyckere, and Francis Bacon all influenced this work. Also, the theater was a big part of this series. I go to the theater at least once a month now. I love to watch how directors manipulate their actor’s body language. 

News photography has always been a huge resource for me as well. I think watching the BP oil spill got me thinking in a different way. The images were oddly beautiful and sublime, but there was a horror beneath the images that left me feeling emotionally paralyzed. This paradox certainly inspired my shooting and editing.

I also wanted to start creating a body of work that was cohesive, but not repetitive. I wanted to link this series to my other work, but also take that work a step further.

The fact that I am only photographing men in this series is also an important step for me. I believe if a man had created a body of work centered upon the pain and pleasure of a woman’s body, then it is most likely that those images would read as sexist and somewhat inappropriate. Yet, being a woman working with men, these issues do not get raised. The male body is not nearly as photographed as the female and we have yet to design the proper discourse when a woman dominates a man artistically.

ML: You studied at the School of Visual Arts, now you teach there. What has changed in those ten years?
CL: Well, if I recall correctly, Stephen Frailey was the chair for just about two years during my time as a student. But he implemented changes that have impacted the school to this day. Stephen is one of the most brilliant and inspiring leaders I’ve ever met. Because of him, students now have more professional resources and exciting possibilities for travel.

The facilities have changed drastically over the years. There are fewer darkrooms and more computers and a better quality of equipment.  There are more students at the school now, which means there is more work and a bigger crowd at the Mentor Show. 

As for the student body, I would say art school students don’t change too much! What I’ve learned being on the other side is that having a ‘good’ class is about having a bunch of people who have good chemistry. I’m happy to say that this year at SVA has been such a pleasure. Our class is filled with motivated, inventive and loud students- a perfect combination.

ML: You Before All is being exhibited at the Daniel Cooney gallery, opening on the 17th. It’s your third solo exhibition there. Does it get easier? What are the hardest moments in exhibiting?
CL: No, for me it gets worse with each show. However my process is very slow because I edit my work with a very harsh eye.  I have not had a solo show at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in 5 years, which is a long time in the current structure of the art world. Therefore, I’m very nervous about this show. I think being public with anything you do is brave and, which means exhibiting never gets easier. 

I think the hardest part of the process is seeing the work come back from the framer. There is a pause in the process where you lose control between the printer and the framer.  The piece is not complete until it is framed properly.  And what if it’s fucked up along the way, what if you choice the wrong frames… then it is too late or too expensive to fix.

But I should say that it’s mostly my own anxiety that creates this fear.  The people who help me create my work are amazing.  Katy Browning at Browning Frames, Sergio and the team at Black and White on White, and Dan Cooney all do great work. I should thank them for that and for putting up with my own craziness. I think together we have created a strong body of work and I can only hope the audience feels the same.