Using photography and text as her gateway, Ora Cohen’s black and white archival pigment prints challenge and confront gender identity. Born in Akko, and now living in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Israel, Cohen began her career 20 years ago, and now works with both digital and film. In one of her most accomplished series, Cohen traveled to Berlin to photograph 20 women who look like men and has also photographed herself. Her process begins by finding her subjects through social media outlets, making contact and forging connections, all steps that inspire what happens before the camera.
Cohen’s most recent body of work features images of landscapes taken during her stay in the United States. They represent the power of nature in the face of existential questions like belongingness and loneliness. In landscape photography, Cohen finds stillness and silence away from the noise and chaos of urban environments. The approach she takes is the same as with portraits. She looks for contrasts of beauty and power as well as the soft and rough qualities of lines, curves, and edges.
ORA COHEN ONButch Series #5040
Canson Infinity Rag Photographique 310g
$1750
Butch Series #1302
Canson Infinity Rag Photographique 310g
18” x 27.5”
$1750
I use photography and text, primarily in black and white, to confront issues of gender identity and address major existential questions. For my ‘Butch Project’ series, I photographed more than twenty masculine women, including myself, in Israel and Berlin. My aim was to show that masculinity is not the sole domain of men and individuals are to be seen beyond the limits of binary categorization.
My latest series of landscapes was completed during my stay in the United States. In desolate, abandoned places, I can feel the power of nature, while reflecting on the meaning of belongingness and loneliness. As a photographer and artist, I always try to establish a connection with a certain place and in landscape photography, I am able to find this connection in silence and stillness. The way I approach portraits and landscapes is the same: I look for the contrasts of beauty and power as well as the soft and rough quality of lines, curves, and edges.
ORIGINAL ORA COHEN ARTWORKS ON
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