DAVIN LAVIKKA
Photographer / Painter / Owner
Davin Lavikka is a photographer and artist in Scottsdale Arizona. Photography is his primary tool and has been for the last fifteen years. He is known for his architectural and commercial work but has become known for his fine art photography first. He is influenced by early masters like Eugene Atget, W. Eugene Smith, Diane Arbus, Walker Evens, Ansel Adams, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Horst P. Horst, Ernst Haas, Herbert Bayer, Jacques Henri Lartigue and Edward Weston.
DAVIN'S HISTORY
He has had a few different careers in design that molded him into the person he is today. The path to where he's at now started with a love for architecture and a talent for drawing early on. This led him into advanced architectural drawing programs in high school and some part time work inking drawings for local architects along with learning how the business worked. The inside knowledge steered him away from architecture and pushed him towards a college fine arts program. He then began showing his work in galleries while still school and sold quite a lot of work. Three years into college he married and started a family bringing school to a halt.
Throughout Davin's youth he worked part time as both a general mechanic and as a certified automotive technician. This led him to a technical job working for a large company in the microprocessor industry for six years. Davin was an engineering assistant and that entailed building prototype robotics and further improving those designs. The management discovered he had technical illustration skills and promoted him. His duties included technical drawing, 3d modeling, photographing assembly steps, advertising photography, technical writing and converting the manuals he created into web documents. Davin left the company to work for a local design firm doing photography, layout, design, proofing, printing and web development. This job was a great learning experience because it covered all elements of design. His primary job was later defined as photography and web design. He still has this design firm as a client today. "I have been on my own since 2001 and I really feel that photography is my calling but design is every where". Davin's work can be found in galleries, ads, magazines and websites. " I am constantly evolving, learning and happy with what I do".
THE ULTIMATE GOAL
From the very beginning Davin has been a visionary translating his ideas into a physical form through drawing, painting, illustrating and photography. Davin's ultimate goal is to fully explore the artistic side of photography through alternative processes and ideas. He is fascinated with visual composition and how we react to it. "You can look at a master painter's work like Marcus Pierson, Philip Curtis or Van Gogh, see a painting they did and automatically know it was them. It's harder to do that with photography but that's the goal, to see identify me without knowing the work."
