James Cowlin: Consider the Cactus

James Cowlin: Consider the Cactus

James Cowlin’s career as a landscape photographer began in 1978, when he was awarded the first fellowship for artists from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. The grant was for $5,000, and as he notes, “That was a lot of money in those days.” Since the funds could be...
Stephen Robeck: Up Close and Abstract

Stephen Robeck: Up Close and Abstract

“Cameras and photography have been in my DNA since I was about 10 years old,” says Stephen Robeck. “The mystery is that I don’t even know why or how it started. I’d go and take pictures with a simple little camera, develop them, and make prints.” After a career spent...
Tim Best: “Poser”

Tim Best: “Poser”

We live in times when gender is a construct open to question, fluidity, analysis, and change. What is male? What is female? If you don’t feel comfortable with the sex you’re born into, you can change it. If you want to marry your own kind, it’s the law of the land...
Beryl Goldberg: Party Time in 1976

Beryl Goldberg: Party Time in 1976

With convention fever finally over, it’s difficult to remember that there was a time when these convocations were unscripted, often rowdy affairs—no slick designer dresses, no big-screen simulcasts, and certainly no Internet or YouTube to bring us the proceedings...
Ed Grant: New York State of Mind

Ed Grant: New York State of Mind

I have always loved New York by night. It’s the time of day when the city is at its most mysterious, lights spilling out of windows and doorways at oblique angles, headlights piercing the darkness, hints of movement and connection among figures silhouetted behind...