Working primarily in and around the small Pennsylvania cities of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, American street photographer Mark Cohen (b. 1943) photographs people and places encountered at random. In the 1970s he distinguished himself from older peers such as Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander by pushing aspects of street photography to extremes, producing pictures with little evident meaning and jarring compositions, such as faces or bodies only partly included in the picture frame. This exhibition of nearly 70 black-and-white and color photographs made during the past 40 years reveals elemental aspects of human behavior and urban life, captured in Cohen’s photography. Mark Cohen: Strange Evidence is on view October 23, 2010 through February 2011 in the Levy Gallery of the Perelman Building, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Cohen rarely used his viewfinder, instead positioning the camera away from his body as he quickly walked by subjects, snapping pictures. This mitigated the aggressive quality of his encounters, but also introduced a strong note of chance into his images, leading to seeming compositional mishaps, such as Jacket/Rain Drops from 1978, featuring a figure from neck to waist that completely fills the frame. Yet while the photographs frequently appear to have no clear subject, Cohen captures small details that transmit the emotion of the photograph: women clutch at bags—as in Lizard Bag, 1973—or drag deeply on cigarettes while regarding the camera with a wary eye. His subjects often stare directly at the camera, looking both aggressive and vulnerable when caught on the sidewalk or in more private settings, such as Man Drying Hands, taken in a public bathroom in 1974.
“Mark Cohen captures essential qualities of modern American life in his photographs,” said Peter Barberie, The Brodsky Curator of Photographs at the museum. “His images are often unsettling, showing us a world filled with anxieties, accidents, and desires.”
Throughout Cohen’s work runs an ongoing evalutation of cities like Wilkes-Barre, where he lives. Although historical documentation in not his aim, the city’s changing character is charted through photographs that depict the public square, the bus stop, outdoor summer gatherings and many backyards.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street. For general information, call (215) 763-8100 or visit the Museum’s website at www.philamuseum.org.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.