PUBLISHER
Steidl

BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 9 x 9 in. / 180 pgs / 10 color / 90 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 11/3/2020
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2019 p. 165

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9783958295551 TRADE
List Price: $50.00 CAD $69.95

AVAILABILITY
In stock

TERRITORY
NA ONLY

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STEIDL

John Cohen: Look Up to the Moon

Text by John Cohen.

A Wall Street Journal 2020 holiday gift guide pick

In the summer of 1955 a relatively naive and uninformed John Cohen (born 1932) crossed the straits of Gibraltar. He arrived in Tangier with a handwritten note in Arabic; the man who had composed it in New York had told him to “keep this paper far from your passport.” Cohen had no idea why, or indeed what the note said; it was not addressed to a specific person. He was simply instructed to look for a certain man when he arrived, who would then send him to “the others.” Cohen’s otherwise straightforward trip to make photographs in Morocco thus began with a sense of intrigue. In his words: “The camera led my way to a distant culture, along with the desire to represent what I could see and sense there, and not be distracted by chronology or thought. My photographs were intended to be a sensual response to light and to the people who inhabited these spaces.”

Featured image is reproduced from 'John Cohen: Morocco.'

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Wall Street Journal

William Meyers

Look Up to the Moon” is the first publication of pictures that Cohen, then 23 years old, took in Morocco in 1955. He knew almost nothing about the country when he arrived but was fascinated by the people, the barren landscapes and the contrast between intense sunlight and deep shadows in the alleyways of decaying villages and cities.

Guardian

Tim Adams

Cohen almost inadvertently captured the rise of revolutionary tension in the contrast between images of French troops in ancient squares and the furtive bustle of his revolutionary guides in shadowy back alleys. More often, as here, you sense his preoccupation with his principal quest, “a sensual response to the light that had inspired Matisse”.