Pepper Levain was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. After some years in Berlin she moved to Brighton, UK to study Performance Art and to create experimental stage performances. The artist then realised her psychedelic essay film PARADISE 3000 for which she created a large portfolio of polaroids and 35mm shots mainly taken within the LGBTQIA community – so far in New York, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, Paris, London, Athens and Berlin during the research process – and has not stopped photographing since. Pepper describes the queer nightlife scene as her home and artistic playground. While being an observer and documenter she also creates very own characters to film and photograph. The work’s content opens not only a contemporary dialogue relating to subjects such as gay movement and the meaning of queerness, gender and beauty. It offers a visual landscape that instead of victimizing a subculture, captures a strength and proof of self empowerment of a highly diverse scene, that may be applied to being a symbolical statement for freedom of self expression and an act of social emancipation at all. Pepper is currently based between Berlin and Athens where she produces music, video and photography works.

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