David Allee

David S. Allee (born 1969) is an American artist and photographer whose work centers on the built environment, urban landscapes, and the interaction between architecture and light. Allee has produced projects such as White Nights, Cross Lands, Chasing Firefly, Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center, Domino Sugar Refinery, and Frame of View.

Education Allee received an undergraduate degree in economics and government from Cornell University in 1991, and his MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts (2001). He began his career as an urban planner before switching to photography.

Photography Allee's photographs are focused on the built environment, and on architecture in particular. He is well known for using found available light at night in his work, beginning with White Nights (2000–03) and followed by Cross Lands and, most recently, Chasing Firefly. He has also exhibited and published series of images of the abandoned Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center (2006–10), defunct Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn (2013–14) and more recently, Frame of View (2003–19). In 2020, he used a tilt-shift lens to control perspective while taking frontal photographs of Broadway theatres closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions David S. Allee, Knoxville Museum of Art, 2004 Dark Day, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York City, 2011 Frame of View, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York City, 2013

Group exhibitions Selections from the Bronx Museum Permanent Collection, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, 2014 Behind the Wheel, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA, 2012

Collections Bronx Museum of the Arts Santa Barbara Museum of Art Knoxville Museum of Art