Adger Cowans

“You take a picture with your heart and not with your eyes. The eyes see what the heart feels. You have to be there first—recognizing pain or joy or whatever—in order to show it to the viewer. That’s the artist’s job and it’s why I love my work.” – Adger Cowans quoted in Robert Kiener, “Veteran Photographer Adger Cowans is Still Learning at 81,” Professional Photographer, 2018.

Harlem 1958 and Nude #22 are examples of Cowan’s diverse portfolio of work, with Harlem 1958 representative of Cowans, self-proclaimed “documentary” style of photography in Harlem, New York, and Nude #22 as an example of his more abstracted, light-focused work. Both works demonstrate Cowan’s personal belief of being literally and spiritually present in the moment when taking a photograph, whether that photograph be the moment between two people on the streets of Harlem, or the fleeting and changing reflective presence of light on a surface. 
 

Title: Harlem 1958
Artist: Adger Cowans (b. 1936)
Date: 1958
Medium: silver gelatin on paper
Dimensions: 15 ½ x 19 ½ inches
Accession Number: H77.21.2
 

Title: Nude #22
Artist: Adger Cowans (b. 1936)
Date: n.d.
Medium: silver gelatin on paper
Dimensions: 19 ½ x 15 ½ inches
Accession Number: H77.21.1

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