Photographer Jeff Cowen crafts his poignant images on silver based paper, which he cuts, collages, and alters with chemicals and other darkroom techniques. Informed by his study of painting and drawing, Cowen's images have an emotive, painterly quality that pushes the bounds between photography and other two-dimensional media. After graduating with a degree in Oriental Studies from New York University in 1988, Cowen worked as an assistant for photographers Ralph Gibson (b. 1939) and Larry Clark (b. 1943). In his off hours, Cowen photographed the streets of New York, tenderly capturing the city's fringe cultures. His current practice includes a wide range of subject matter from figures to landscapes, still lifes, and abstractions. Cowen works from what he describes as an "emotional standpoint" where he has to feel strongly about his subject to produce a photograph: "There is nothing casual about a photograph for me. It is a balance. It must seem effortless and have a fabulous simplicity about it and at the same time it must have this mysterious complexity."[1]

Cowen was born in New York City in 1966, and has lived and worked in Berlin since 2007. His works have been exhibited at such institutions as Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Germany; Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam; Michael Werner Gallery, Cologne; Galerie Seine 51, Paris; PUG Gallery, Oslo; and Galería Nieves Fernández, Madrid, among others. Cowen regularly participates in art fairs such as Art Basel, Art Cologne, Arte Fiera, ARCOmadrid, PHotoEspaña, Art Paris, and others.

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[1] "Jeff Cowen," Lens Culture, accessed June 4, 2015, http://www.lensculture.com/jcowen.