About

John David Levy is an interdisciplinary artist from the San Francisco Bay Area working broadly and primarily across both analog and digital, still and motion pictures. In addition to his films and photography he has directed, shot and edited music videos for Bay Area experimental rock group OXBOW and Finland based composer EMMANUEL TOLEDO aka EEEM - and has, worked as an in-house as well as freelance video editor and assistant editor, videographer, and was a content and video producer for an international advertising agency. His work comes from a personal connection to the subject and often features the natural world in conversation with his protagonists or in some cases, is the protagonist itself. He gazes on the epicness of simple things and natural beauty in the delicate as well as the decayed. His pen and lens frequently bordering on the edge of the dreamy and otherworldly.

Contacts

415. 879. 1647
info@JOHNDAVIDLEVY.COM

"As an artist, I am drawn to what follows after the abandonment and loss of the people and things in this life. As humans, as cosmos, as souls. IThe commonalities that connect us as well as the otherworldly specificity and worlds of who an individual is, has been, and can and will be in all dimensions. And in an approach that is exploring the fringes of narrative and character. Where everything and nothing can unfold with something to offer. Never committing to the confines of traditional structure and tropes. But leaning into nature, universes inside and outside the human condition and the possibilities of their unknown frontiers."

~ John David Levy

John David Levy's official position on the use of AI in his work

Like many creatives I am asked often either about AI or to use AI

While many other creators, apps, platforms, etc. are implementing AI in their tools and companies are pushing AI hard, I do not and will not use AI in my production, or post-production work. And while I see the merits of some administrative or secretarial work from AI, I am yet to need or use it for even those purposes. But I do not and will not ever use it in editing, filmmaking, photography, or to write original work.

AI has a long way to go before it should be implemented so broadly. And given the amoral hands that is in and their urgency to shackle every human to it, gives me pause and great concern. As it should give you. I didn't rush to the internet or mobile phones/smart phones. I was the last person to embrace them. And I still think I should have waited longer. And I have some regrets about aspects of those I already embraced. So, i will not be rushing out to imlenment AI into my life and work. And the aggressive push to do so and threat of isolation if I don't is the red flag that confirms my choice is the right one for me.

Artists are my people and have been burned bad by the rise of AI and the development of AI has been handled unethically, and ultimately, I am unimpressed by it. I come from analog and embraced digital, but there is an ethical and environmental line that I don’t cross, and creatively, AI defeats the purpose of why I do what I do.

I love the process of my work. I believe in the power of genuine human creativity, craft, and the practice of that discipline. I believe in wabi-sabi, I believe in a human approach to my work and the cognitive and even spiritual benefit that come from exercising the muscles and muscle memory of your craft. I believe it is essential for a creator to connect with the work and be in the moment of its making. It makes for better content, better art, and better cinema.

I understand many "creatives" and potential clients do not feel this way. That is fine. We all have a choice in how we do our work. But I didn't come to art and cinema from making content for others. I came to make content to others through art and cinema. People have hired me over the years because I care. Because I bring the same values and principals in both spaces. That's my zhuzh. And when someone wants that, they hire me. And when they want AI, they hire someone else. It just comes down to choices, values, process, and end goals. And I put human process and human creators first.