Mark Cohen

A Look At… Mark Cohen, American street photographer, whose style has often been referred to as intrusive and aggressive.

On his unconventional way of getting in people’s faces and shooting from audacious angles, Cohen describes his brutal stealthy style as a necessity. “If you have your camera up to your eye, you can’t keep track of what’s going on. By holding my camera down here” (his waist), “I can suddenly take pictures.”

His ‘hit and run’ style of shooting has earnt him close encounters with the police and from less than happy reluctant subjects. “Well, I was making art so I suppose I had license. That’s how I felt. Nobody was getting assaulted really; nobody was getting hurt. The intrusion was to make something much more exciting and new than sneaking a picture on a subway, like those buttonhole Walker Evans pictures or the Helen Levitt pictures. This is a whole different level of observation.” (Mark Cohen, Grim Street)