The mind tricks behind Dina Litovsky’s street photography

American photographer Dina Litovsky makes use of her doctorate’s degree in behavioural psychology in her raw street photography. Her feel for group behaviour, social interactions, and cultural rites and rituals allows her to capture the art of leisure.

WORDS: Erik Sedin
PHOTOGRAPHY: Dina Litovsky

You originally studied psychology in the early 90s, but ended up with an MFA graduate degree in photography around, 20 years, later years. What happened there? Was there a certain turning point when you turned to photography?

”I didn’t pick up a camera until I graduated from New York University at 23. I come from a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant family so having an art career wasn't an option. Growing up, I wanted to be a painter, but according to my family, I had to either become a doctor or at least marry one. So, I went to NYU for the pre-med program and a psychology degree. It was only when I graduated that I realized with certainty that I didn’t want to go to med school. Coincidently, my parents gave me a camera for my birthday that year. They regretted that for a long time.”

Like with any profession, having a knack for psychology will massively help your career. How has it helped yours?

”My entire photography practice is based on my studies. I often call my work visual sociology. I focus on group behaviour, social interactions, cultural rites and rituals and gender politics.”

What was it with American culture and the country’s human social interactions that grabbed your attention? Why do you want to photograph it?

”American culture is very complex with different layers, and that’s where it gets interesting for me. I have both an insider perspective since I grew up here and an outsider, since I come from an immigrant family and that combination has proven useful in combining deep understanding with a different perspective. I am not interested in telling the whole story of American culture, that would be a foolish undertaking, but in exploring specific aspects of it. I am fascinated by the idea of leisure and exploring how people unwind. It can be Amish people on vacation in Florida, bachelorette parties or weekend nights in New York’s Meatpacking district.”

“I prefer for my subjects not to notice me, doing a fly-on-a-wall type of photography while getting pretty close.”

So is there another place or setting that you would like to capture, perhaps outside the US?

”I photograph outside of the US a lot, especially for the publications that I work with like National Geographic which has me travelling around the world. One of my favourite shoots was in Kyiv in 2018, (I am originally from Donetsk, Ukraine). I pitched the shoot of the last day of school, an old Soviet tradition, to National Geographic. Known as the Last Bell, this day happens every year before summer break and all the schoolkids take over Kyiv, bathing in fountains and having picnics, turning the city into their playground.

”One place that I would love to capture is Madrid. They have crazy nightlife, it beats New York easily. It’s normal to party into the early hours, like 5 A.M. It just seems like a crazy city, I would love to bring my camera there.”

Tell us about your shooting process. Do you approach the subjects on the street or do you wait for something to happen in order to capture it? How often do the people in the pictures know that they're being photographed?

”It depends on the project. Usually, I prefer for my subjects not to notice me, doing a fly-on-a-wall type of photography while getting pretty close. For Meatpacking series, for example, I didn't talk to anybody, and I was often just a few feet away so it was hard not to notice me. If people tell me or give me a sign that they don’t want to be photographed I would put the camera down.

”This strategy wouldn’t work for the Amish project, since it's a very close community. I can’t walk in and just shoot without permission like I would in a big city. I had a guide that introduced me to everybody, and I let everyone know I was there to photograph and asked for permission beforehand.”

“I often call my work visual sociology. I focus on group behaviour, social interactions, cultural rites and rituals and gender politics.”