Carrie Levy: 51 Months
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€31.99
A daughter documents the absence of her father at home, after he is in prison for 51 Months.
On her 15th birthday Carrie Levy was waiting at home in hope for her father's return. He didn't make it. At the time he was being sentenced to prison for four years. Here she charts the years of his absence from their lives through her camera, as the void he left is filled with memories and reminders of him, compounded by his absence, from the empty garden, to the road trip to the prison five hours away. It took a year for Carrie Levy to grasp the consequences, the significance, of that day. At school her story was a jewel of gossip – the sidelong glances, the whispers, the outright glares. But she worked hard, and left a half a year early to escape her own prison. She picked up her camera. With the glimmering dark glass between her and her life, she began to photograph the empty spaces in her home, on the road, outside the prison (her mother would make the 10-hour round trip almost every weekend), in her pointless garden.
But it was not pointless. These pictures are redolent of loss, of vacant landscapes and interiors that appear to be meaningless but as a whole sing a narrative song of those four years, like Carson McCullers’s sentences which, when dissected, add up to no more than nouns, verbs and adjectives, or the brushstrokes of Impressionist painting.
It is a singular story, and one that stopped when her father came home in March, 2000. She spoke to her father for 15 minutes about his crime. It has not been mentioned since. Four months later, in June, Carrie Levy closed the lid of the suitcase under her bed that contained the 500 images she had taken.
On her 15th birthday Carrie Levy was waiting at home in hope for her father's return. He didn't make it. At the time he was being sentenced to prison for four years. Here she charts the years of his absence from their lives through her camera, as the void he left is filled with memories and reminders of him, compounded by his absence, from the empty garden, to the road trip to the prison five hours away. It took a year for Carrie Levy to grasp the consequences, the significance, of that day. At school her story was a jewel of gossip – the sidelong glances, the whispers, the outright glares. But she worked hard, and left a half a year early to escape her own prison. She picked up her camera. With the glimmering dark glass between her and her life, she began to photograph the empty spaces in her home, on the road, outside the prison (her mother would make the 10-hour round trip almost every weekend), in her pointless garden.
But it was not pointless. These pictures are redolent of loss, of vacant landscapes and interiors that appear to be meaningless but as a whole sing a narrative song of those four years, like Carson McCullers’s sentences which, when dissected, add up to no more than nouns, verbs and adjectives, or the brushstrokes of Impressionist painting.
It is a singular story, and one that stopped when her father came home in March, 2000. She spoke to her father for 15 minutes about his crime. It has not been mentioned since. Four months later, in June, Carrie Levy closed the lid of the suitcase under her bed that contained the 500 images she had taken.
Carrie Levy is from Syosset, New York. When she was fifteen her father went to prison for four years, and Levy began to photograph the banality of her world without him. Five years later her work, redolent of waiting and loss, was published as 51 Months by Trolley.
Carrie Levy has a background in creative roles, specializing in photography and art direction. Carrie began their career as a Senior Photo Editor at Wired Magazine in 2012 before moving on to become the Head of Photography at Airbnb in 2013. From 2015 to 2016, they worked as the Creative Lead at Instagram, followed by positions at Apple as an Art Director and later as an Associate Creative Director for the Today @ Apple program. Most recently, Carrie has held the position of Creative Director at The New York Times, starting in 2019, and subsequently moving on to their current role at Droga5 in 2022.
Carrie Levy has pursued their education in the field of Photography. Carrie enrolled in the Royal College of Art, where they pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Photography. Subsequently, they attended the School of Visual Arts in New York to further their studies and obtained another Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Photography.
Carrie Levy has a background in creative roles, specializing in photography and art direction. Carrie began their career as a Senior Photo Editor at Wired Magazine in 2012 before moving on to become the Head of Photography at Airbnb in 2013. From 2015 to 2016, they worked as the Creative Lead at Instagram, followed by positions at Apple as an Art Director and later as an Associate Creative Director for the Today @ Apple program. Most recently, Carrie has held the position of Creative Director at The New York Times, starting in 2019, and subsequently moving on to their current role at Droga5 in 2022.
Carrie Levy has pursued their education in the field of Photography. Carrie enrolled in the Royal College of Art, where they pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Photography. Subsequently, they attended the School of Visual Arts in New York to further their studies and obtained another Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Photography.