LIONEL DELEVINGNE

PHOTOJOURNALIST / ARTIST

“Earlier in my career as a contributor to Mother Jones, Die Zeit, and the New York Times, my work focused on the world’s realities; however, today, I’m drawn to the inherent world of my surroundings. In many ways, this shift reflects a reaction to these times of fake news and hyperreality. I must deconstruct and reconnect with core values and a renewed viewpoint. I’m drawn to the intricacies of space and light, fleeting instances, creating a minimalistic and abstract rendition of the world around me—a kind of visual Haiku.” -

Harryet Candee: In a moment of deep study, reflection, and inspiration, I found an immediate need to respond to your recent ongoing photography work I saw when looking through your XING series of photos. So, I saw this image out my window and had to respond visually to you with a shot from my iPhone. Suppose my photograph was cropped, enlarged, colorized, and taken to the next level. Would my visual response be interesting enough for you to comment on?

Lionel Delevingne: Your response touches me. It is gratifying that you are inspired by my work to help ignite your spark. In the digital age, letting the computer manipulate photographs can be fun and rewarding. However, the essence of my work is based on a very personal connection with the environment. I always say it is the eye, not the technique. At the carwash, I want to feel free to explore something that catches my eye and act in the moment. My process sometimes results in an explosion that goes beyond the surface of reality, a place with no walls. I search for colors that don’t exist. Someplace where I find my solace.

When you were living in Paris, France, and reacted strongly to the Paris Uprising of May 68’. Going back in time, can you describe what your gut reaction was, and how did this open the pathways to becoming a visual communicator?

LD: 1968 was seminal in my development. The whole world opened up. It was Spring. I was 16. I was scared and excited at once. Only later did I find my ultimate medium of expression.

One of the details of the May 68 Revolt in Paris said that French youth generally assumed they lived under a quasi-benign political dictatorship. It was an era of international “youth culture.” However, French society remained autocratic, hierarchical, and tradition-bound, especially in

Lionel Delevingne

the eyes of French youth. Did this event strike a chord, resonate and bring out a certain kind of rebellious nature inside of you that helped plant seeds for the photography you were sent out to create?

LD: Post WWII French Society was sclerosed. I saw scrawled on a wall, “Be a Realist, Demand the impossible” and “Should we kill the Teachers?” An explosion was happening—and I was in the middle of it. Streets around me were aflame. Society was rethought. Imagination was taking over. It led me to pursue teaching as, what I thought at the time, would be the best tool to help create a better world.

After this life-changing event, what happened next for you?

LD: It was a point of no return. I was a student at Ecole Normale d’Instituteurs, a stodgy bin of traditional politics with no promise of change. My friends and I gathered in cafes in Montparnasse and restaurants in Montmartre. We talked and philosophized about the state of the western world. We dreamt of a new political structure.

What challenges and goals at this point did you begin to realize you had to see to fruition?

LD: I left school and, influenced by American movies like Easy Rider, and Woodstock (the film), among others, I decided to travel to the US to seek what the future of western civilization had in store, i.e., alternative lifestyles, solutions to the problems plaguing old Europe. I started writing and photographing and quickly appreciated more for my visual talents more than my literary skills.

One of your exhibit catalogs, which is extremely beautiful, is LIONEL DELEVINGNE: From Paris to Stockbridge, via Fukushima. Much happened in the USA for you before this, but the work and meaning behind this book is timeless, powerful, and soul-searching. The pages by this author read, “Delevingne exhibits a surreal, almost mystical connection with the natural and physical world around him…focuses his lens on the ordi- nary but sees in it the beautiful, mapping an internal landscape and guiding the viewer to a heightened experience of their share habitat.” Can you tell us about this exhibit in Stockbridge in 2020 and your involvement with the Laurel Hill Association?

LD: The exhibit was curated by Jim Schantz of Schantz Galleries. It was a beautiful space that allowed me to display my new series in themes in grid arrangements. I was on the Board of the Laurel Hill Association, as was Jim Schantz. Hence, one of our aims with the exhibit was to raise money for Laurel Hill, which had my own goals for caring for and preserving the environment. The exhibition was a great success.

As a photojournalist, you witnessed so much mixed emotion from the people. What were you specifically looking to capture at the Mayday demonstrations against the Vietnam War?

LD: I became a photojournalist in the early seventies. My first professional (and published) work was in 1974, when I photographed environmental activism and social unrest in France. What I have always tried to capture is the courage of individ- uals in situations that the mainstream media would not otherwise cover. no trees. But, with Steve, I grew to feel and experience what drove Steve’s passion for the people and the land and their resilience in their harsh environment as they pursued the American dream. I was no longer “taking photographs”; instead, I surrendered to the land, and the land gave me back the serenity that you may feel in those photographs.

Another of your books is a pictorial essay you have done with author Steve Turner, Drylands, a Rural American Saga, 2011. What personal meaning did this book have for you, and what were your primary interests when gathering these images?

LD: I met Steve in 1975 during a labor strike in Springfield, MA. We were a unique combination of pictures and words. Our partnership followed the steps of “Let’s Praise Famous Men” by Agee and Evans. Steve had earlier published a book on Eastern WA state which I illustrated. I was subsequently invited by Nebraska Press (an academic publisher) to publish a visually driven new book in the same spirit.

While working on this book, did your childhood family values come to mind? Were you comparing at all? How did they compare?

LD: I was born and raised in Paris. My first impression of eastern WA state was sobering—flat, Continued on next page...

When you worked for the New York Times, Business Week, and other periodicals as a photojournalist, did you always agree with what was reportedly written that went along with your photographs? When did it or did not jive with you?

LD: The text may have already been written when I was assigned stories to illustrate. While I collaborated with some editors (as in The New York Times Travel Section or Mother Jones Magazine), in other publications, I had no control over using my photos, which were sometimes manipulated. Journalism and art are not great bedfellows. That is one reason I have moved towards books and exhibits, so that I control the presentation of my work.

However! With your art making, you do not have to agree with anyone’s opinion! It is just exactly what you want it to be. And X does mark the spot! Your book, X-ING: Adventures in a car wash, was proudly handed to me by the gentleman who manages 510 Warren Street Gallery in Hudson, NY. I went there originally to drop off magazines.

Peggy Reeves updated me on the upcoming exhibit schedule; here we are. I find this book XING: Adventures in a car wash, so in the now and a slice of life. How would you put into words this body of work?

LD: You may call it an antidote to covid and boredom. “My Adventures at the Carwash” is more than just washing a car. Just like in WA state, my mind moves from perceiving something as mundane to eliciting its hidden beauty and spirit. It is exploring the nonsensical and making it art. As for my use of aluminum, I saw it as most fit to recreate the luminescence of the digital form.

How did you go about deciding on the artwork for this show at 510?

LD: Because of the gallery’s physical configuration, the exhibit’s format is a collage (Barnes Museum-like!)) of iconic works I’ve produced over the years. I am exhibiting many “Points de Vue” that I hope the viewers find fun.

What do you find most positive about being a member of a cooperative gallery?

LD: While, as artists, we are often seen as lone wolves, there is a genuine benefit in talking somewhat in the same language. And new friendships to be made.

The artist’s market is in an interesting state now; is there anything you have found necessary for you and other artists to be aware of?

LD: Many galleries have had difficulty surviving and have closed down. If artists don’t help themselves, who will? A collective of artists has the power—to control what is on the walls and to manage the gallery without being beholden to the vicissitudes of the art market.

The computer has become one of our most important tools— from everyday life to essential tools for art and business. How do we keep up with everything new and changing in the cyber world? Or do we simply not because we will get frustrated? Is it best to keep an in-the-moment simpler lifestyle, where we appreciate our natural environments, and create art from actual art materials? Thoughts?

LD: I hate spending time on the computer. My mind goes back to Antonioni’s movie Zabriskie Point in 1968, where consumer objects are blown up on the screen, throwing everything away, disconnecting from the grid, and reuniting with human values. But it’s too late to go back. I keep the full extent of my film technology to an iPhone and a tablet.

Are you following any influential artists these days?

LD: There is a small group of contemporary artists, all painters, who are presently important to me—for example, Ethel Hultberg. Ethel is a great artist who, at 95, creates daily. Another example is Jim Bliesner. Continued on next page...

Jim is an artist and activist in San Diego who takes art to the inner city to serve social justice. And, locally, Jim Schantz, whose ode to nature exudes spirituality.

Your early black-and-white photographs are striking. Can you tell us about the camera you got your hands on for this work and how it was, at the time, the best tool for the work you were producing? Were you also processing the film in a dark room?

LD: I have always known the camera does not make the picture. It is the eye. My first professional camera was a 35 mm Pentax. Until 2000 I processed and printed my black-and-white work in my darkroom. (Color was sent to a lab).

Where have you traveled to and brought home ‘eye-candy’ photos and stories you can share with us? We all love a good story of remembrance.

LD: My recent trip to Antarctica qualifies. The Gentoo penguins were most endearing. Like Sisyphus, they kept climbing the mountain on a never-ending mission. As a creature in our precarious world, I felt an affinity with them.

Have you kept a written journal through the years? Are they being kept in a safe place?

LD: Being a photographer, I am an archivist by definition. My journal is visual and organized by themes and times. My environmental activism files are archived and available to the public in the Robert S. Cox Special Collections at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at UMass, with a plan to transfer my entire collection in the near future.

Who do you live with at the present time?

LD: I live with my wife, Judith Wilkinson, and my chocolate lab, Suzette. And the bears, birds, bees, and red fox that just walked by!

With all that you have seen in life, what can you say you have found to be most reflective and truthrevealing about our world?

LD: It is a sobering time, and history repeats itself. I choose to live in Stockbridge, a worthy haven with its pioneering environmental history.

I like the photograph of Pete Seeger in your portfolio. He was an man from an era gone by. Did you personally know him? What iconic figure do you think has taken the place of Pete?

LD: I was introduced to Pete Seeger’s music in France. My pleasure and work took me to many of his concerts when I moved to the US. I met him several times. He incarnated for me the good American. He was the conscience of America. The photograph was taken at the “Towards Tomorrow Fair” in Amherst, MA, about 1977/78.

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy”-Albert Camus 1952,— and your quote,“I subordinate my art to reality, because reality comes first. It’s a question of priority.” Please explain the relevance of these quotes found on your website.

LD: My sense of subordinating art to reality is based on the period before Trump and Covid. After that, my art became prime. I am looking for a new reality. I hope I find it. lioneldelevingne@gmail.com www.lioneldelevingne.com https://www.instagram.com/Lioneldelevingne