Daniel Cooney Fine Art is proud to announce our third solo exhibition of photographs by New York based artist Carrie Levy. In this exhibition titled You Before All, Levy exclusively photographs naked men who allow her to manipulate their bodies for the photographs. The results are images that reveal submissive and vulnerable states of the male body. Many of the men are lying on the ground; a few are upright with intense expressions of pain or possibly pleasure. Some of the men are seemingly being gagged, choked, or the victims of some type of torture. One man lies face up with drool running from his mouth down the side of his face.

Levy describes herself as a predator and the men as passive victims to her direction. In her artists statement Levy uses the words “manipulate”, “control”, “pain”, “ecstasy”, “predator”, “victim”, “severe”, “exposed” and “naked” repeatedly. Emotions are absent or at least ambiguous but the images are incredibly evocative of instinctual response.

Carrie Levy has exhibited her work internationally. Most recently at FotoFreo 2010, Australia; CAN.09 Biennial in Norwich, England; The International Festival of Photography and Video, Busan, Korea and the Presentation House, Vancouver, Canada. Her work is in the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art. Trolley Books published her monograph, 51 Months in 2005 and she has been included in many books and her work has been reviewed in numerous publications including the New Yorker, The London Sunday Times and Newsweek.