Mein Kampf

Since his first publication in 1977, Hitler Moves East, photographer David Levinthal has explored a panoply of compelling issues in representation. Using toy soldiers, dolls, and other figurines, Levinthal, in Mein Kampf has created dramatic tableaux which engage the narrative of Hitler's rise to power and the Nazi campaign to wipe out the Jews and other marginal groups of people. Although miniature in scale, Levinthal's Storm Troopers, concentration camps guards and Hitler's complicit phalanx assume monumental proportions photographed with the Polaroid 20 x 24" studio camera. Shot against flaming red skies, and cold, steel-blue interiors, the spectacle of military pageantry and the senseless slaughter of men, women, and children converge in a disturbing critique of collective memory.