DREAM BEACH

Madelyn Jordon Fine Art is pleased to present DREAM BEACH, featuring photography by STEVEN HIRSCH and DJ LEON. This online exhibition highlights two photographers whose distinct anthropological styles center on beach life and culture around the world.

For over 30 years, NYC street photographer and photojournalist Steven Hirsch has been identified by his gritty depictions of society's fringe including portraits of criminals, prostitutes and transients. In his new series DREAM BEACH, Hirsch captures the idle merriment of seashore denizens - talking, dancing, sunbathing, and playing. Showcasing the images in a fisheye format, the photographs are distorted and abstracted depending on the angle and light. Applying no editing, Hirsch's ethereal compositions oscillate between representation and abstraction, blurring the boundary between photography and painting.

Born in Brooklyn, Steven Hirsch's work has appeared in numerous publications and included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Polaroid Collection, The Everson Museum of Art, Bibliothèque Nationale de France and The Library of Congress among many others. He has taught at the International Center of Photography, The New School, Parsons School of Design, The School of Visual Arts, New York University and the Pratt Institute.

DJ Leon’s color photographs often focus on popular beach places and social gathering, themes of leisure and pop culture, nature, and enjoying life. Leon allows his story to be told through themes which are dear to him, such as man’s relationship with nature and the landscape, the interaction of people in public areas, and how a multitude of apparently insignificant, trifling events and stories co-exist. He shoots candid figurative images with a sobered, unbiased perspective, as if to suggest he is absent from the scene.

As a longtime, avid photography enthusiast, DJ Leon began devoting himself exclusively to a photo based practice after retiring from Wall Street in 2009. His body of work has developed into multiple forms, from making images with a camera, to combining and transforming images into collages. Leon has exhibited his work around the United States and internationally. Recent exhibitions have included American Embassy, Ankara, Turkey, Madelyn Jordon Fine Art, Scarsdale, NY, Lawrence Cantor Gallery, Los Angeles, and Art Market, Miami.