Photographers - Part 22

 David Lebe

David Lebe, born in 1948, is an American photographer known for his experimental techniques.  His photos explore issues of gay identity and living with AIDS.  Above is an early photo called Unphotograph Seven - Self-Portrait in Toaster, 1975.

In the 1980s he experimented with "light painting," adding lines or outlines to a photograph with a flashlight or other light source during a very long exposure, like Self-Portrait, 1981.

Bernard and Grady and Me, 1986.

Renato's Arc, 1983.  The interesting thing is that the arc didn't exist; it was added to the image during the photographic exposure.

Lebe also did conventional photography on occasion, like Antonio Posing, 1984.

But he was more interested in pushing the limits of photography.  Unsatisfied with color photographs, he started making hand-colored black-and-white photos, like Seth, 1985.

In the late 1980s Lebe was diagnosed with AIDS.  Through a mutual friend he met porn star Scott O'Hara, above, who also had AIDS and who asked Lebe to photograph him.

Lebe's photos of Scott are more overtly sexual than the rest of his work.

Lebe said his photos of Scott represented a refusal to give up on life's pleasures and a triumph of the spirit over AIDS.

Scott O'Hara died of AIDS, but David Lebe was saved by new HIV drugs in the 1990s.  He is still working.  In 2013 he started a new series of photos called ShadowLife.  The series mostly consisted of shadows of inanimate objects, but there was at least one shadow that I thought was of interest.

David Lebe is now considered a major American photographer, and many of his photos are in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.