Alan Cohen Photography Lecture

"You need to find the boundary lines you are crossing... We have less and less to say about the value we think we hold... Your work doesn't have to be narrative, but you are going to be impacted by whatever you grew up in and whatever you are going towards... It's crucial to find that line. It's shaping you in terms of what's possible and what's not...You need to understand your transitional points. It's not just global and political but it may be personal. It might be transitional from Suburban to Urban, or it might be a type of thinking. It's ambition, it's drives, it's fantasies. Work is based on the awarenesses that come from transitions. The more you know who you are, the more you can speak... If you don't want to talk about things, choose to look at things. If you're not thinking about what someone will swallow, you're not thinking about them. Or you'll never get people to open up to you. Questions should be neutral, directed, focused thought-out. This isn't about what you like, it's about what you perceive, If you are interviewing someone, make that perception larger. Then you may be the bearer of the question, to inform whoever else is around you. If you get informed, they'll get informed. Think about the so what aspect of every question. So you're asking a question, so what? You also can't ask a quesiotn like a tv interviewer. A question should come out of things that are there and being addressed and that are evident and make sense and can be backed up. If they aren't, work it in, build it in. Where do you place yourself in this dream of contemporary history? The thing about Josephson is that his ideas are technical, personal, historical; there is an analysis that is acceptible. There is no look-at-me-doing-this sensibility. He's very drole, he's very calm... You should never write an essay just to write the essay. You need to edit yourself and then edit yourself and then edit yourself."