He is Editor-in-Chief of MATTE Magazine, an independent journal of emerging photography founded in 2010 that recently released its 47th issue. He was formerly the photo editor of VICE, and has also written criticism and interviews for Aperture, Foam, Art F City and TIME LightBox. Leifheit holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, where he was awarded the Richard Benson Prize in 2017. Currently, Leifheit is an adjunct professor in photography at Yale, Parsons, Pratt and School of Visual Arts.