In an age when the world, and the medium of photography in particular, is dominated by digital techniques, and the attribute of authenticity is acquiring ever more value, the work of Jeff Cowen has a special place. In Cowen’s approach the transience and ephemerality of photography is paradoxically united with the immortality and tractability of painting. The modern aspect he imparts to his work is in using the photographic process to transform his subjects into something profoundly personal. The layers that Cowen adds to his photographic works blur the original meanings of his subjects, soften their sharp contours, and affect a transformation that lifts them from the banal to the sublime.
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