Decades before Instagram photographer Daniel Arnold amassed 118,000 followers by capturing street scenes below eye level and surreally framed, Mark Cohen was cementing a style of street photography that has become not only iconic but fashionable decades later. Cohen recently told Vice's i-D magazine, "If you look at the advertising in Vogue, you'll see a lot a pictures that look like I might have taken them 30 or 40 years ago. In the New York Times, you see pictures with people's heads cut off all the time. When I first did that, it was seen as extremely radical, but now, it's very common." In a recent
HuffPost Arts and Culture piece, photographer Michael Ernest Sweet reminds contemporary audiences that Mark Cohen's style was paradigm-shattering at the time: "In precis, both Cohen's way of working, as well as his product, were entirely unfamiliar to a vintage audience."
Many of Mark Cohen's iconic images were taken on the streets of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in the 1970s. The scenes captured in these photographs amount to more than just street style fashion photography; Cohen's work is emotional and evocative. "There's an autobiographical thread to Frame that's very hard to explain even to myself. But it's about life, your work is really about your life in some ways," he explains. We asked Mark to take us back to the moment he created some of his images. For Throwback Thursday, enjoy these six short pieces written by Mark Cohen detailing the process and spirit behind photographs from his most recent book, Frame: A Retrospective.
HuffPost Arts and Culture piece, photographer Michael Ernest Sweet reminds contemporary audiences that Mark Cohen's style was paradigm-shattering at the time: "In precis, both Cohen's way of working, as well as his product, were entirely unfamiliar to a vintage audience."
Many of Mark Cohen's iconic images were taken on the streets of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in the 1970s. The scenes captured in these photographs amount to more than just street style fashion photography; Cohen's work is emotional and evocative. "There's an autobiographical thread to Frame that's very hard to explain even to myself. But it's about life, your work is really about your life in some ways," he explains. We asked Mark to take us back to the moment he created some of his images. For Throwback Thursday, enjoy these six short pieces written by Mark Cohen detailing the process and spirit behind photographs from his most recent book, Frame: A Retrospective.
Behind the Images
By Mark Cohen
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| Bandaged Boy on Bike, August 1998 From Frame: A Retrospective |
Bandaged Boy on Bike, August 1998, is about my use of speed and the life intensity of the small boys playing more or less wildly. And it is about the bandages—just visible as they zoom by—seen around this kid's arm and chest. A bandage in a picture creates an eerie unease or discomfort.
I was using a 50mm lens, panning along with the boy to have the much-needed depth of field as there was no time to focus, a normal lens, as I did more and more frequently, at this time, 25 years after the 1970’s, to keep my distance, and safety, from the very close and confrontational interactions when I would get inches away with the 28mm lens.
The boy sees me as he goes by and when I see this negative I see that there are two bandages, adding to the sense of surrealness of the picture. We meet eye to lens as he flies by. He has defiance and speed and I have pretty good focus. The shirt is like a part of a Weston contact print and it all goes on with Hollywood lighting.
I was using a 50mm lens, panning along with the boy to have the much-needed depth of field as there was no time to focus, a normal lens, as I did more and more frequently, at this time, 25 years after the 1970’s, to keep my distance, and safety, from the very close and confrontational interactions when I would get inches away with the 28mm lens.
The boy sees me as he goes by and when I see this negative I see that there are two bandages, adding to the sense of surrealness of the picture. We meet eye to lens as he flies by. He has defiance and speed and I have pretty good focus. The shirt is like a part of a Weston contact print and it all goes on with Hollywood lighting.
