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Fashions
exist in art and in ideas quite as much as in women's
clothes and in the world of the mind they are much more
dangerous, for instead of being put forward frankly as
fashions they are presented as the new truth.
How refreshing then, how salutary, how encouraging, to
find a man who is prepared laboriously to think things out
for himself, who will work alone for years to develop his
own vision, his own technique, and who will not allow
himself to be deflected from his chosen path by so-called
experts speaking an esoteric language directed only at
in-groups and which, as Anna Russell puts it "leave the
average person as befogged as before.''
In photography, as in so many other fields, it is the
loners who break the trail, who make the path that others
can follow. They are few; yet their originality
is seen later to have led them straight into the
mainstream whilst the work of others, sometimes more
immediately successful, is relegated to a mere expression
of the fashion of the times.
John Cohen is very definitely a loner. If he
had not been, he could never have produced the charming,
sentimental, yet so very personal photographs in this
book. For in an age of tension and violence,
when all of us are continually bombarded by images of
horror, to make photographs, solely for pleasure, and
expressing the gentler aspects of life, is to court the
accusation of being escapist, of deliberately ignoring the
allegedly sole business of the photographer, which is said
to be realism and reportage, to be a mirror of the times.
In all his work John Cohen emphatically refuses to be tied
down by such notions. He insists on being himself,
and in so doing he strikes a blow for the freedom of the
individual, and for the freedom of photography. With
every photograph he says: "there is more to life than
dustbins and death, than weariness and war; even in an
overcrowded world there is room, and a need, for sweetness
and light.''
Light! That narrow band in the energy spectrum, without
which all life on earth would perish!
As Lord
Kenneth Clark reminds us "From Dante to Goethe, all
the greatest exponents of civilisation have been
obsessed with light." This obsession is no
stranger to photographers.
Indeed, since the photographic
image is made by the action of light, truth to light
is truth to the medium of photography! All John
Cohen's photographs are made, simply and solely, by
the use of light. His magic is the magic of the
luminous, his poetry is that of the chiaroscuro.
The attractions of his work is all the greater for the
purity of the photographic technique, and its appeal
all the more universal for being couched in an imagery
common to all men and intelligible to all.
From early beginnings in 1963, John
Cohen's work soon attracted attention. An
article in the magazine 'Photography' in 1964, acceptance
in the London Salon of Photography in 1965, the principal
trophy there in 1967: all were encouraging signs.
But it was his one-man show at the 'Wall of Colour,'
Kodak which set the seal of success and of future
development on his work; for this was the first such
exhibition which Kodak had given to an amateur. It
led to exhibitions in the Edinburgh Festival 1968, in the
Coliseum and in Grand Central Station, New York, in the
National Film Theatre, London, and in many worthwhile
venues in the provinces.
But this portfolio is more, much more, than a one-man
show, fascinating though this aspect is in
itself. It is also a 'how-to-do-it'
presentation. And this part is immensely useful
to all who feel inclined to use their camera
imaginatively. For it turns out that far from
needing elaborate and expensive apparatus to produce his
delightful and mysterious results, John Cohen uses only
bits and pieces which can be bought for modest sums
anywhere, or may already be lying about at home. My
goodness, anyone can do it! Well, anyone that is,
who is gifted with imagination, persistence and patience -
for simple though the means may be, it is clear that the
author himself has devoted time and thought and effort to
each of his pictures. But once again, how good
to find someone willing to reveal a trade secret for the
sake of the spread of the art.
In this article, John Cohen extends the boundaries of the
possible in photography, and shows us all how we can do so
too. What more valuable service could he render
to what Sir John Rotherstein has called "the dominant and
fascinating and only folk art of the twentieth century?"
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