Career
Some of his best known images document the Abstract Expressionist scene centered on New York"s Cedar Bar. Gallery happenings by early performance artists. Young Bob Dylan"s arrival in New New York
Beat Generation writers during the filming of Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie"s film Pull My Daisy.
And the "old time" musicians of Appalachia. (The title of Cohen"s 1962 film, High Lonesome Sound, has become synonymous with that music) He has been one of the most important "discoverers" of traditional musicians and singers, finding and recording Dillard Chandler, Roscoe Holcomb, and many banjo players, most notably on the album High Atmosphere.
Beyond the United States, Cohen traveled extensively to Peru, driven by a fascination for the weaving and lifestyle of the native Andean population. His field recording of a Peruvian wedding song is included on the Voyager Golden Record, attached to the Voyager spacecraft.
He currently resides in the lower Hudson Valley of New New York
He has taught photography and drawing at Purchase College. He organized a gallery show of Peruvian retablos at the college as well. The Grateful Dead song "Uncle John"s Band," on Workingman"s Dead, according to what Cohen calls "a true rumor," is supposed to have been written about Cohen and his band.
The Library of Congress has recently acquired John Cohen"s archive, which includes his films, photographs, music recordings and other historic ephemera.
There Is Number Eye: John Cohen Photographs, introduction by Greil Marcus. New York: powerHouse Books, 2001.
X, Past, Present, Peru, Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2010.