Lynne Cohen

(American, b.1944)

#2964 Laboratory, n.d.

Lynne Cohen addresses found scenes in a manner reminiscent of Eugene Atget’s photographs of Parisian crime sites. Unsettling in their stillness, the unpopulated interiors (including laboratories, classrooms, and military training grounds) Cohen photographs suggest activities that have already happened or might yet happen. In #2964 Laboratory, this lifelessness is underscored by the presence of mannequins – the “crash test dummies” designed to stand in for their human counterparts – which provide for another, more profound, level of emptiness.

Lynn Cohen attended the Slade School of Art, University of London before receiving her BS from the University of Wisconsin (1967) and MA from Eastern Michigan University (1969). Her austere photographs of uninhabited interiors have been exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; International Center of Photography, New York; Light Work, Syracuse, New York; Manes Gallery, Prague; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other prestigious venues. Cohen’s work is included in the collections of many significant international institutions. Born in Racine, Wisconsin in 1944, Cohen lives today in Ottawa, Canada.

Cohen, Lynne. L’Endroit du Décor [Lost and Found]. Paris: Hôtel des Arts, 1992.

Cohen, Lynne, et al. Occupied Territory. New York, N.Y.: Aperture Foundation, 1987.

Thomas, Ann and Lynne Cohen. No Man’s Land: The Photography of Lynne Cohen. New York, N.Y.: Ottawa: Thames & Hudson; National Gallery of Canada, 2001.

Thomas, Ann, et al. Environments Here and Now: Three Contemporary Photographers: Lynne Cohen, Robert Del Tredici, Karen Smiley. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1985.