Levi Cheff

My interest in photography started around the age of 13, when my mother handed me her camera, with a roll of color film and sent me outside. I took pictures of everything, our horses, the vines hanging from the trees near the river, Dandelions and rocks. This was the seed that led me on the path of photography. I shot high school sports for our valley’s weekly newspaper for a couple of years while in high school.

After high school I thought I wanted to be a Global Affairs major and even went to George Mason University for two semesters, I soon realized the school, the major, was not for me. My connection with photography was too strong. I moved to Richmond Virginia and enrolled in the photography program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Richmond lends itself to the photographer, with it’s amazing coble stone alleyways, kids with handle bar mustaches riding bikes and in contrast, people living on the street. A friend of mine called Richmond “dirty, pretty” an art warming community and a motley crew of people who live in it. Virginia Commonwealth University gave me the foundational tools for my photography career. I did a three month photographic documentary on the effects of coal mining from Centralia PA. to southern West Virginia.

My career really found its definition in two unexpected ways; the first was through my love of mountain biking. Adventuring out and descending down trails played with my imagination on what I could photograph and led me to capturing mountain bike racers at their pivotal moment. The second was when my sister had an audition for a movie and asked me to shoot her headshot. The feeling of her being called in for an audition because of my headshot was amazing. I soon began photographing other people’s headshots. Shooting headshots has got me beyond the camera and lights to bring out a person’s natural subtle expression of who they are.

To inquire about services, please visit www.levicheff.com