PHOTOGRAPHER: Tamar Levine
Tamar Levine didn’t originally set out to be a commercial artist. With a feminist writer mom and an avant-garde director dad, naturally, she wanted to be a scientist. Unfortunately, she failed the AP Biology test and so found herself science-free. She is now a director, photographer, creative director, and dairy-free ice cream making enthusiast. After her BFA with honors from Art Center College of Design, Tamar went on to create commercials, videos, and photo campaigns for a wide range of fashion, music, and commercial clients. These have included Victoria's Secret PINK, Urban Decay, Lexus, Warner Bros Records, Flaunt Magazine, The American Red Cross, Save the Children, Nylon Magazine, Lincoln Motors, Verizon Wireless, and many, many more we won’t bore you with here. A career highlight was her first solo photography exhibit at Bergamot Station in 2014—a culmination of a decade’s work. When she was making selects for this show, she realized her central characters shared a certain profile: strong but with a sadness to them, and a self-awareness that transformed that sadness into ironic humor. Wanting to tell bigger stories, Tamar went on to direct her first short film, "Twenty-Two Date Palm Way", which debuted at Young Director’s Night at LACMA. Next, she directed “It’s Okay", somehow convincing the talented Neil LaBute to write the dialogue and getting the amazing Jenna Fischer and Thomas Sadoski to star in it. That experience was such a blast that she continued and since then, has written and directed short form content for SuperDeluxe and WhoHaha, plus short films, music videos, and lots of things that the world hasn’t seen just yet. To date, Tamar’s work has won award after award: The prestigious ADC Young Guns, New Exposure by Vogue, Redx & Bottega Veneta, Communication Arts, and PDN Photo Annuals, among others. She absolutely loves to tell stories that are grounded but that draw on her photography background for visual impact. Her work highlights the absurd world we live in by making people laugh, cry, and maybe, sometimes, discover their points of unconscious discomfort.
