Toned silver print, 1970. 368x381; 14½x15 inches. Signed, titled, numbered 1/5 in pencil on the mat. Printed by the artist circa 1975.
Provenance: private collection, Pennsylvania.
Adger Cowans is a celebrated photographer whose wide-ranging work includes the Civil Rights Movement, jazz musicians, landscape and studies of the human form. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Adger Cowans was one of the first African American students to earn a degree in photography from Ohio University. There he studied with Clarence H. White, Jr. and drew inspiration from photographers like Ansel Adams, Gene Smith, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Paul Strand.
In 1958, Cowans joined Life magazine, where Gordon Parks served as his mentor. While living in New York City during the 1960s, Cowans became a founding member of the Kamoinge Workshop and an influential force in the Black Arts Movement. Later, Cowans became a member of AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), the 1968 Chicago art collective founded by Jeff Donaldson, Jae Jarell, Wadsworth Jarell, Barbara Jones-Hogu, and Gerald Williams. Cowans also became the first African American film still photographer in Hollywood. Cowans employed his camera on over thirty Hollywood sets, alongside directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, Spike Lee, and many others.
Cowans' photographs have been both shown and collected by numerous institutions including the African American National Museum of History and Culture, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the International Museum of Photography, the Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Bio courtesy of the artist's website.
