Purple Art
[May 27 2014]
Mark Cohen at Danziger Gallery, New York
Mark Cohen was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where he lived and photographed for most of his life. Shooting in the gritty environs of working class Pennsylvania, Cohen brought to street photography a literal and innovative closeness that came from his style of holding the camera at arm’s length without looking through the viewfinder while using an unusually wide angle lens. Intrusive but elegant, by turns brutal and sensuous, Cohen’s cropped bodies and faces and gritty still lives and landscapes reveal a finely tuned aesthetic and consistency. No background behind the looming foreground figures is without interest. No random object is observed without purpose. “They’re not easy pictures. But I guess that’s why they’re mine,” says Cohen. Photo Elise Gallant
