watercolorist. When he began working with color photography, Levon West adopted the pen name "Ivan Dmitri," though he continued to use the name "Levon West" for his non-photographic work. Ivan Dmitri was a pioneer in color photography and wrote several books on the subject, his first being Color in Photography, in 1939. The first color photographic cover on The Saturday Evening Post magazine (May 29, 1937) was by Dmitri, a photo of an automobile racing driver seated in his race car. Another SEP cover (May 16, 1944) was a photo of General 'Hap' Arnold, with B-17's flying overhead, with a B-17 crew planning a flight. This cover was so popular that the United States government used the photo image to print a very rare World War II war effort poster. As Ivan Dmitri, he helped to gain acceptance of photography as an art medium, and established one of the first photography exhibits at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dmitri believed that such a move was necessary in order for the public to treat photography as art, rather than just something reserved for smaller mediums like books, magazines and newspapers. Beginning in 1959, Dimitri organized a series of exhibitions titled "Photography in the Fine Arts." West was a recipient of the North Dakota Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award in April 1962, the third person so inducted. Personal life In 1943, West married Louise Remington. West died on April 25, 1968, age 68, at New York Hospital in New York City. References 20th-century American photographers Artists from North Dakota 1900 births 1968 deaths Carlson School of Management alumni People from Wells County, North Dakota People from Morton County, North Dakota Artists from South Dakota American people of Armenian descent United States Navy personnel of World War I People from Centerville, South Dakota Olympic competitors in art competitions