[LargeFormat] Lynne Cohen - photographer

[Marco Milazzo]

I've only given Lynne Cohen's photographs a cursory glance, but that glance
suggests to me that they're "idea" pictures,  rather than beautiful images.

That is, you don't linger over the interesting composition, subtle lighting,
well-rendered textures, etc. but rather ponder the intriguing idea that our
"settings," -- our furniture, accessories, ec. are like containers for human
life -- only we're seeing them empty, minus their usual contents, like an
old glove that describes the hand that wore it, though the hand isn't there
anymore.

It seems to me that most large-format work isn't about ideas like these, but
simply about seeing the physical world in a certain way.     I don't mean
that Aget, or Edward Weston were devoid of ideas -- far from it -- but that
they chose the large format because it could do something visually a smaller
camera couldn't.

These are just some reactions -- I make no value judgements, and I'm open to
being corrected.

I'll look more closely at her work tomorrow and see if that changes things
for me.

Marco of  Texas