Richard Alan Cohen Fine Art Photography

Having transitioned to fine art photography from a 40 year career in biomedical research, I have come to realize that I approach photography exactly the way I approached my scientific work. Yes, science is art, and art requires technical excellence. Photography provides the most important elements that stimulated me in my previous career – exploration, discovery, imagination, and creativity – only the subject matter, tools, and location have changed. Like my work in science, I am motivated to share my work and vision with others. Over time, I have become more of an image maker than a straight photographer. My process begins with the discovery and exploration of a subject, and then moves on to an imagining of what the image could become. Using the raw image I experiment with light, contrast, color, sharpening, compositing, and editing - all processes which have become explorations in and of themselves.

My images are often inspired by elements of the landscape; I painted them as a teenager, encouraged by my artist mother. But now I see landscape as an invitation to the viewer to enter imaginary worlds, ones which may suggest past or future visions, offshoots of the moment that the shutter clicked. Abstract patterns on boat hulls (Waterline/Overboard) or dying agave fronds (Agave Night Visions/Agave Climate Change/Agaves in Turmoil) have suggested to me that imprints of surrounding vistas from the perspective of these inanimate surfaces are etched upon them. For instance, I imagine “what if” a withered agave frond were to record evidence on its surface of the climate change that has contributed to its demise as it folds to the ground. Once the idea is there, the more I look, the more I see patterns and colors that might constitute such evidence. My job is to bring a record of that insight to fruition. While it’s not my purpose to dwell on it here, developing a scientific idea to the point of publishing a research paper was a very similar process for me.

I have also used perspective and scale to magnify tree stumps into craggy cliffs (Moonlit, Moonlight Burning) and small waterfalls and streams into mountain cascades (Climate Falls, Planet Falls, Discovered Worlds). I pause at these natural wonders to make images of them in order to preserve their existence and enlarge their importance as records of what natural beauty can be. Here I wish to set apart their beauty from threats of climate change by keeping their settings pristine, their surroundings otherworldly, their scale majestic. The advantage of art is to be able to recapitulate reality, allowing the imagination to take one to new places. As I have unbound myself from representing reality, I have freely expanded the time of the image far beyond the duration of one shutter click. For instance, the images in Fearsome Beauty are composites of 40-60 images taken from different perspectives and sometimes on different days. Similarly, in World Views, I have emphasized the importance of climate change, by taking a truly global perspective on the future health of even the smallest natural niche. In Silver Light I have made images of the threatened ecosystem in beaver bogs, and to reflect the fragility of that environment, printed the images on vellum backed by silver metal leaf.

My process is thoughtful and demands excellence at each step. Having been trained as a scientist, I experiment with shooting my images in several ways, so that when they are finished they best reflect my vision of the subject at the time of shooting. I often take many - sometimes up to 50 to 70 - images of a subject, and later combine them to enhance perspective, lighting, color, and exposure. In choosing how to approach photographing a subject, I often ask questions like, “how would an agave plant or a beaver view its surroundings! The answer led me to create abstract images from close ups of the plant (Agave Night Visions) and muted, duotone prints on metal-backed vellum of beaver bogs (Silver Light). I also freely combine images taken from different perspectives and at different times to better demonstrate how my photographic subject can be creatively viewed. I view my abstract and hyper realistic images as just different ways of viewing a subject, and I let my imagination and creativity choose how to image a subject. I trained with a photographic printing professional for several years, so that my prints are technically the best way to present my work. In college, I spent two years matting and framing renaissance drawings, so that I have a keen appreciation for presenting both dramatic and delicate artwork.

Richard Alan Cohen grew up in Portland, Maine, and attended Bowdoin College where he co-majored in art and science. Having always maintained an avid interest in art, he has now transitioned from a 40-year career in cardiovascular research to being a full-time fine art photographer living in northwest Connecticut. The aspects of discovery (now of subject, light, and color in the field) as well as the imagination and creativity involved in developing a concept (now in editing and printing of each image), are very similar in the two careers, with many of the same rewards. Richard has exhibited his photographs in many solo and group shows at venues including 555 Gallery, Panopticon Gallery, the Griffin Museum of Photography, Photographic Gallery San Miguel Allende, Galatea Fine Art Gallery, Kingman Gallery, Sohn Fine Art, and Five Points Gallery. He is represented by Kingman Gallery (Deer Isle, ME), Zonagrafica (San Miguel Allende, MX), and Boston Art.

Based on his experience as a youth in and around boatyards, abstract seascapes in “Waterlines” and iconic orifices in “Overboard” have been derived from photographs of the textures on the sides of boat hulls sitting in their cradles. Abstract landscapes have also been visualized on the dying fronds of Mexican agaves in his series, “Agave Night Visions”, “Agave Climate Change”, and “Agave in Turmoil”. Recently, his concerns about the environment have led him to create otherworldly landscapes from mossy, rotting tree stumps in “Moonlit” and “Moonlight Burning”, and in small, hidden waterfalls and streams in “Climate Falls”, “Planet Falls”, and “Discovered Worlds”. “World Views” take a truly global perspective on the future health of even the smallest natural niche. In “Fearsome Beauty” he has reconstructed hyper realistic images of maguey agaves to highlight their struggles in a harsh environment. Silver Light is a series of images of beaver bogs made as they might appear through the subdued color vision of these animals who, despite loss of wetlands, stubbornly continue to shape their own environment. These environmental series emphasize reverence for nature and the importance of a healthy climate on even the smallest natural niches.