honorable mention
Richard Cohen united states
title
Alien Portraits
back to gallery
entry description
How do we relate to a plant designed to keep us away? Cacti thrust through dry, hard ground, and tolerate environmental extremes. But, the principal way they survive is through sharp points, thorns, and teeth that prevent approach. These images were constructed in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, in February 2017. Most walls lining the streets there are solid, rough adobe that have withstood the effects of age. Some walls date from the time of the Conquistadors to whom the many cacti might have appeared as aliens. Five hundred years later, their power still has the ability to repel us. The walls and the cacti persist, and these images hint at the forces by which cacti endure in the context of both nature and civilization.about the photographer
Richard Alan Cohen lives and works in the South End of Boston where he still pursues his college double major in art and science. He graduated from Bowdoin College and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His lifetime interest in art derives from his mother, an art teacher and painter, and his father, a house designer and builder. His cityscape photography exposes the manipulation of urban inhabitants by contemporary design and style. Natural features that organize otherwise chaotic surroundings are emphasized in his landscapes.back to gallery