Photography has been an avid pursuit for Alvin Lewis for many decades. The joy of seeing, experience of place, and perception of history as it becomes the present are ideas he explores through the medium of photography. He has been fascinated with the camera as a machine that, while producing an artifact of a specific present, creates a statement of objective fact. The photograph, as an articulation of its present, carries with it all time that has led to the temporal moment represented. The contemplation of the image reveals this continuum, and informing the viewer of the nature of reality of the moment, voices a larger cultural historical context.
Lewis studied photography at Bard College. He went on to teach photography at the New School for Social Research, Parsons School of Design, and the School of Visual Arts Master program. Through teaching he had an opportunity to learn from students who were also fascinated with the expressive potential of the camera.
He worked professionally in the photographic industry for a decade after completing his studies. Although, no longer pursuing photography as a profession, the inquiry and search for an understanding of the world through the camera continues to be a passionate calling.