Mark Cohen

Posted by Fabio 13 May 2011

The majority of the work for which Photographer Mark Cohen is known is shot in the neighbourhoods of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. Characteristically he shoots his subjects close in, often using a wide-angle lens and flash, frequently cropping the subjects’ heads from the frame, concentrating on small details and moments.

Cohen has described his method as ‘intrusive’. “They’re not easy pictures. But I guess that’s why they’re mine.”

Cohen was born and lives in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He attended Penn State University and Wilkes College between 1961 and 1965, and opened a commercial photo studio in 1966. Cohen’s photography was first exhibited in the 1969 exhibition Vision and Expression organised by Nathan Lyons at George Eastman House. He has twice been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1975. A monograph of black and white photographs, Grim Street, was published in 2005 by powerHouse Books. A second book, True Color, followed in 2007.