Exhibitions and Critical Reception

Levinstein's work began to attract attention quickly. Several of his works were featured in Popular Photography and he won its International Photography Contest in 1952. He was also included in the U.S Camera Annual in 1951 and 1952 and he was one of six photographers featured in 1956.


Over the course of Levinstein's career, his photographs were featured in numerous exhibitions. He took part in several group exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, including Edward Steichen's famous 1955 exhibition The Family of Man. Steichen, art director at MoMA, was a fan of Levinstein's work and did what he could to help promote his photographs. In January 1956 Levinstein held a solo exhibition at the Limelight Gallery. Helen Gee, founder of the gallery and another advocate of Levinstein's work, recalled that the show created a lot of excitement and several prints were sold. The exhibition was given complimentary reviews in several newspapers. The Village Voice reported that "the current exhibition at the Limelight really opens the year on a strong note. The selection of 80 photographs by Leon Levinstein is a powerful group of pictures by a photographer whose work is too rarely seen."

However, the Limelight Gallery closed in 1961 and in 1963 Steichen retired from his position in MoMA. With his two main supporters gone from the photography world, Levinstein began to struggle. Unable or, in some ways, unwilling to promote himself, Levinstein became disillusioned and the 50s were to be the highlight of his career.

In 1980, Gee managed to secure Levinstein in the Photography of the Fifties exhibition at the Centre for Creative Photography in Tuscon and in 1985 Levinstein's photographs were featured in two exhibitions; American Images at the Barbican Art Gallery and The New York School at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington.

Posthumous solo exhibitions were organized by The National Gallery, Ottawa, Canada, in 1995 and the Centre Photographic d'Île-de-France, Pontault-Combault, France, in 2000. Helen Gee once commented: "success will come to Levinstein only when he is no longer around to stand in its way." An all too true statement.