About Mike Levy
May 7, 1960 I came into this life. I grew up in University Heights on the eastside of Cleveland and attended Cleveland Heights High School where I took my first photography classes.
In 1982, I received my BFA from Ohio University where I graduated with honors from the school of Visual Communications. Also In 1982 I married Andrea Thatcher. Andrea and I created three beautiful and talented Virgo, daughters, Hannah, Samantha and Emily. Andrea and I divorced in 2002. After graduating college, I took my first full-time job as a photojournalist at The Daily News of Johnson County, (Olathe, KS). From there I moved on to several newspapers across the country including, The Journal (Lorain, OH), The Herald Post (El Paso, TX), The Seattle Times, and The Arizona Republic and the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer where I worked for sixteen years pursuing my career as a newspaper photo-journalist. During that time I was name Ohio News Photographer of the Year by the Ohio Newspaper Photographer’s Association five times and I was a runner up twice as well. In 2004 and 2005 The Associated Press also named me best photographer in the state of Ohio. During these newspaper years, I won many awards from organizations such as; ONPA (Ohio News Photographers Association), NPPA (National Press Photographer’s Association), Cleveland Press Club, Associated Press, and Society for Professional Journalist. I have covered stories and events locally and around the world such as the 50th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, the summer Olympics in Atlanta, the Pope’s first visit to Israel since before World War II, and the Cleveland Indians attempts to win a world series, truth and reconciliation hearings in South Africa and the TB and AIDS epidemic in Uganda. Over the years, my photographs have appeared in publications such as Time, Newsweek, Life, Faith & Form, Columbia Journalism Review, and U.S. News and World Report magazines.
In 1996, I began a self-assigned project to explore the relationship of Cleveland sacred landmark churches to their present urban surroundings. In 2003, The Kent State University Press published this project as a photo book entitled, “The Sacred and Transient, Cleveland Urban Landscapes. In 1999, my relationship with The Center for Sacred Landmarks at Cleveland State University lead to a photo exhibition of my work that traveled to different galleries at Ohio colleges, and universities for more than two years. That show was also displayed in December of 2002 at The Butler Institute of American Art, (Youngstown, OH).
In 2003 I took a Plain Dealer Photo assignment and turned it into a three year project documenting people worshiping at churches in Cleveland’s inner city. The result came to print in May of 2008. My second book, Revelations, Photographs of Cleveland’s African American Churches was co-published by Kent State University Press and Cleveland State University. A show was curated from the book by noted artist Douglas Utter called The Black Church Project, Revelations opened at the Convivium 33 Gallery in Cleveland, a former Catholic Church on November 7, 2008.
Presently I am the owner of Mike Levy Photography, LLC and an adjunct professor of photography at Kent State University and live at the historic Tower Press building in downtown Cleveland.