|
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?"
|