Steve Cohen considers himself both a classical modernist and a modern classicist. From high art to low, his inspirations are wide ranging: ‘I am drawn to what nature teaches us about what and how we create. I am passionate about film, literature and music. I believe in the power and beauty in most everything with the exception of foods containing goat cheese. My role is to motivate you to draw your own conclusions, not to draw them for you. Twenty years in the industry has taught me that no matter where my inspiration takes me, the road leads to the people I love; my wife Leslie and my children, Harry and Sofia’.
I see a lot of still life photographers take photos of objects on fire. Is this in high demand or just something photographers do for fun?
‘The fire imagery was shot more for my pleasure than any one client’s demand for it. As a still-life photographer I find that I am often attempting to exert control over a subject in search of a kind of quintessence or near perfection. Lately, I have been challenging myself by shooting stories and materials that have to do with what I find difficult or nearly impossible to control and then by working without any expected outcome, I happen upon solutions that surprise and gratify me. Fire is both consuming and transforming of whatever is being burnt. I love that transformation – that something like a book or a matchstick once burnt becomes something totally other’.
You seem to be having a lot of fun with your photographs. Is there a lot of experimentation going on in your work?
‘I am glad that my enjoyment is apparent! I am very process driven and, by necessity, patient with the trial and error that is inherent in what I choose to do. I definitely feel that I have a bit of the mad scientist in me – I like to establish a set of rules or guidelines and then photograph within those parameters. For example, the coffee series documents the spent grounds from my lever press espresso machine over the course of 100 days. Each one becomes a kind of Rorschach and the series becomes like a short film.
‘I enjoy examining the things we all see every day and making something else out of them. The individual jellies are a good example of this. Ordering in meals at the studio on a daily basis, one winds up with a lot of individually packaged condiments. I saved all of them for a year in anticipation of doing some kind of personal work with them. As I peeled the foil off of the individual jellies I noticed that wherever the jelly had made contact with the foil it formed a unique shape. No two were alike and they started to represent symbols or characters like an alien alphabet. I created a periodic table of elements out of them and what I imagined to be a telephone keypad. I try and inject a kind of wit into my work – a knowing nod and wink to what we all have as the basis of our visual knowledge and then put an unexpected twist on it’.
Do you ever work with a stylist?
‘I work with very talented prop stylists all the time commercially and often collaborate with stylists for my personal work as well. A good stylist brings much more than props – the best professional relationships are based on a shared aesthetic and the ability to surprise and stimulate one another with ideas, skill and talent’.
When photographing still life, what is the most challenging yet rewarding material to work with?
‘There isn’t one material that I can qualify as fitting the bill. I know that as long as I am constantly challenging myself and teaching myself new things, then I feel gratified and rewarded’.
After 20 years in the industry, what types of projects are you most inspired by these days?
‘I am most inspired by work that allows me to bring my intellect to the forefront. Commercially and editorially that means being a collaborator early on in the process of generating ideas. When it comes to my personal work, I find that being able to let go and embrace the flow of creating is most inspiring’.
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