Richard Alan Cohen’s work was a 2023 Rfotofolio Selection.
Would you please tell us about yourself?
I’m a conceptual landscape photographer who considers the ideas behind every image I make. Because I was formerly in cardiovascular medicine and research at Boston University School of Medicine for 40 years, I approach my art methodically like an academic. Though I have a copy of the typical picture of me holding a Brownie Hawkeye at age 8, and I graduated from Bowdoin College with a dual major in art and chemistry, I really didn’t delve into serious photography until I was 60.
A few years later a semester-long workshop at the Griffin Museum of Photography helped me to see that I should embrace fine art photography full-time. I also spent about 3 years training with a master fine art printer who helped me develop techniques in photoshop and got me started using my own printer. Unlike my collaborative research career, all the photographic tools are in my own hands, making the responsibility for the work now entirely mine. The shift in careers has proven to be a rewarding and enriching decision.
Who has had an influence on your creative process?
My mother was a high school art teacher and painted huge canvases, so she made sure I was exposed to art. My father designed and built houses, and he had great maker’s hands. They both introduced me to drawing and sparked my interest in representing the 3-D world in 2-D. Though I had photography courses in college, my senior independent study in art was under a master draftsman and printer of etchings. That experience solidified my interest in graphic arts and diverse photographic printing techniques.
My creative process was also strongly influenced by my mentors in science and medicine who taught me problem solving and encouraged changing perspectives. In addition, because my former career was supported by research grants, I literally could not afford not to develop new ideas and produce novel work.
I developed a habit of seeking the unusual. For example, I deliberately avoid well-known locations for my photographic subjects, like Iceland or Antarctica, not due to their lack of beauty but because I’m drawn to capturing the overlooked, and try to steer my creative process toward novel and distinctive photographic subjects. Of course, as Ansel Adams said, “The response to natural beauty is one of the foundations of the environmental movement” and this truism has a lot to do with my own interest in the environment.
Please tell us about an image (not your own) that has inspired you.
Apples, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, 1942 © Elliot Porter
Of course, I am inspired by the great black and white landscape photographers, but I remember seeing an early color dye transfer print by Eliot Porter in the collection of the Portland Maine Museum of Art. The image has gorgeous, but somewhat unusual color. The apples cascade in a field of tree leaves, and the composition strikingly aligns with Duchamp’s Nude Descending the Stairs. The image fades at the edges, and I remember it for its very painterly quality. Porter’s photographs of intimate landscapes – those that lack a sky – also have influenced my landscape compositions.
Is there an image that you wish you would have taken and can you still see it?
I am captivated by the beauty of nature during my hikes, and although I often retain vivid memories, I don’t regret unphotographed moments. Once I choose to make an image, there is a whole other thought process at play. I’m thinking of how the scene will translate into a 2-D composition, how the color and light might be best represented, and how the print will look. If I haven’t made an image of it, then none of that has happened. The much worse quandary results when I haven’t spent enough time thinking about why I want to make the image and all the steps needed to produce it well. That’s my fault and the opportunity is usually gone forever. There’s more of those attempts than I want to recall.
Please tell us about the work you submitted to The Rfotofolio Call.
Living in northwest Connecticut I am fortunate to have state parks in which there are expansive woodlands and beaver bogs within a 15-minute drive of my home. This proximity allows me to revisit and study many unique subjects that have led to diverse portfolios of tree trunks (Moonlit, Moonlight Burning), waterfalls over mossy rocks (Climate Falls, Planet Falls, Discovered Worlds), and the beaver bog series submitted to Rfotofolio, Silver Light.
This series was a result of early morning ventures into the beaver bogs, requiring chest-high fishing waders to stay dry. This “immersive” experience offered a unique perspective, providing a beautiful, peaceful, and uncommon view of a rarely visited natural setting. Beavers, as keystone species, shape the habitat for numerous wetland species. Unfortunately, the increasing seasonal heat has made this environment fragile, and I’ve witnessed several bogs drying up in recent years.
Beavers have poor eyesight, and they are thought to perceive only in blue and yellow parts of the visible spectrum. This prompted me to create images in the same color range, initially just to try to see how a beaver does. Because of the fragility of the environment, I chose to print these images on delicate vellum. To highlight the early morning light that I saw in the bogs, I backed the vellum with silver foil which accentuates the highlights and provides a glow in the midtones. Regrettably, this subtlety is mostly lost in the online images.
How do you work through times when nothing seems to work?
Drawing again from my scientific background, where only 5-10 percent of experiments make it to publication, I come to photography with experience in having many things not work at first! Both photographers and scientists share the need to avoid stagnation of ideas. Whether exploring a new location, adopting a fresh perspective on a subject, or experimenting with different printing techniques, the avenues for change are endless. I look at challenges as opportunities for discovery.
What part of image-making do you find the most rewarding?
I love the whole process of photography leading up to the point that I can hang a proof on the wall. Then I often deconstruct the image and approach it from new angles, to continually refine and develop the final result.
What tools have you found essential in the making of your work?
The camera kit, the software, the printers evolve over time, and now they are all generally excellent tools. But what’s most important to me is that they are next to me! I have to work in nearby locations to which I can go back to often, and bring the images home to a dedicated studio to which I can easily return several times a day.
Is there something in photography that you would like to try in the future?
I’ve made 2-D images inside rectangles, squares, circles, and ovals, as each frame lends something unique to the subject. I’ve also composited many, many images of the same subject taken from different angles over an extended time period into hyper realistic novel subjects (Moonlight Burning, Fearsome Beauty). I can see some interesting directions creating prints in 3-D.
How does your art affect the way you see the world?
Making art has heightened my awareness of the nuances of the light, color, and form in nature. I can’t understand why some people ignore the beauty around them, but natural beauty helps me to tune out distractions. My attitude to art is the same! You can’t make art without benefitting from the change in perspective that the final result gives you and to others.
What’s on the horizon?
Discussing my work with people has always been rewarding, as their comments and questions frequently spark fresh ideas and approaches.
I’ve started to use artificial intelligence applications, because, much to my surprise, if you ask questions in the right way, they can provide a stimulating way to obtain new insights into your images. For the time being, I’m not generating images from scratch, but looking for editing suggestions or sometimes new perspectives on my own images. One thing I learned in my earlier career is that people of different societal and cultural backgrounds often see a problem and its solutions in entirely different ways. Likewise, sometimes an AI app can provide a novel and refreshing point of view similar to the way a person might.
Thank you Richard, to learn more about the work of Richard Alan Cohen please click on his name.
