Birthdate: 1949
Gender: male
Education: Stanford University (A.B., Studio Art, 1970)
Yale University (M.F.A., Photography, 1973)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.M., Management Science, 1981)
Occupations: photographer
Short biography: David Levinthal was born in San Francisco, CA in 1949. He is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1995), a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship (1990-91), Polaroid Corporation Artist Support Grants (1987-89), and the Prix du Livre de Photographie, Le Prix du Livre-Images, les Rencontres, Arles, France (1997). His major projects include Hitler Moves East (1977), Modern Romance (1986), The Wild West (1989), American Beauties (1990), Desire (1991), Mein Kampf (1994), Blackface (1996), Barbie Millicent Roberts (1999), XXX (1999), Netsuke (2002), and Baseball (2003). His work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, in group and solo shows, and has been collected by numerous institutions. He lives and works in New York City.
Nationality: USA
Places of residence: New York, USA
Associated Place (for map): New York, USA

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18 reviews

Stevil2001 2,716 reviews

Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941-43 by David Levinthal

When I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I was most taken with Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography, a collection of photographs that straddle the boundary between real and unreal: staged scenarios that look real, real scenarios that look staged. A couple photos came from this book, and I sought it out once I came home. It chronicles the progression of German invasion of Russia, entirely factually, but the pictures are all of toys: toy soldiers, toy tanks, toy show more train cars. But in their blurry, black-and-white state, it can be hard to tell. You can tell, but the pictures hover just on the edge of reality. Much like war itself, one suspects. The informational text (by Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury fame) is dry (the quotes from participants are much more interesting), but the pictures are fabulous. I could have pored over this thing all day, had I had the time. show less

Apr 18, 2009 (Edited)

sarabeck 50 reviews

Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty?: And Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries by David Levinthal

In my opinion, this was a wonderful book. A frog, named Officer Binky, who spends his time investigating fairytale mysteries, narrates the book. Binky delves into the stories of Goldilocks, Hansel & Gretel, Humpty Dumpty, Snow White, and Jack and the Beanstalk and uses his detective skills to solve each mystery. This book reminded me of the movie “Hoodwinked” in two ways. Both the movie and this picture book take well-known stories and turn them into mysteries. In the movie, different show more fairytales are combined to create a new story. However, in this book, the fairytales themselves do not change but rather the tale is told from a different perspective and how it might look to a detective. I thought this was such a creative way to bring new life to the traditional tales. There is dialogue between Binky and the characters within each mystery and I felt that this was very engaging. Another similarity between the movie and book was the artwork and animations. In the book, I felt the style fit the written text very well. The illustrations had just the right amount of light, child-like cartoon effects, mixed with dark shading. A majority of the illustrations were full color, but there were some panels that had a sepia tone. I also enjoyed how some illustrations encompassed two pages entirely, whereas there were also some pages containing a succession of panels conveying a sequence of actions. The illustrations also revealed some clues for solving the cases. Overall, this book was incredibly creative throughout the entire story and the illustrations and artwork. The big idea of this book was to put a creative twist on well-known fairytales and show each story through the eyes of a detective. show less

Apr 17, 201416 other reviews

Cheryl_in_CC_NV 15,288 reviews

Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty?: And Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries by David Levinthal

There are even funnier fractured tales out there. I think this would have been slightly improved if the illustrations were a tinier bit sillier, and if we'd had a chance to guess which tale each anecdote was based on, instead of seeing the title of the tale as the title of each 'chapter.' As is, the tales aren't really all that twisted - they're just told from a slightly different perspective (usually). And some (Humpty Dumpty for sure) will be seen as unsuitable by some parents.

All that show more said, I do recommend that you check it out for yourself. If the blurb interests you, you may well love the book. show less

Oct 18, 202416 other reviews

jstrecker 59 reviews

Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty?: And Other Notorious Nursery Tale Mysteries by David Levinthal

This book follows a character, Binky the cop (who's a frog), as he investigates crimes that have been reported to him. The crimes themselves are break-ins, murders, and self-defense cases. However, they are all based on fairy tales, such as Humpty Dumpty, Jack and the Beanstalk, or Goldilocks and the Three Bears. About 3-5 pages are devoted to each tale, as Binky investigates and puts his own twist on the story. The book is written very tongue-in-cheek stylistically, which I'm afraid may be show more over the heads of many children. show less

Jun 20, 201616 other reviews

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