Born in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), in 1921, Lewinski survived Russian occupation, internment, and forced labour in Siberia.
After conscription into the Polish army, he served with Allied forces in South-west Asia.
Subjects included Francis Bacon, LS Lowry, David Hockney, Henry Moore, Marcel Duchamp, Peter Blake, Pauline Boty, Gilbert and George, Barbara Hepworth, Barry Kay, William Pye, Peter Lanyon, Marc Vaux, Albert Irvin, Maggi Hambling, Kenneth Martin, Sean Scully, Bridget Riley, Reg Butler, Anthony Gormley, Julian Trevelyan, Sheila Fell, Allen Jones, Richard Wilson, and more.
Lewinski was Senior Lecturer at the London College of Printing from 1968 to 1982, and he was admired as both a teacher and a writer on photography.
He was married to the photographer Mayotte Magnus and lived between England and France.