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May 14, 2011
Ira Cohen, poet, photographer, filmmaker, publisher from the Beat Generation, is known for his mylar images which he created in the late 60's in his loft on the Lower East Side, New York City. Among the artists reflected in his mirror were John McLaughlin, William Burroughs, Jimi Hendrix and Angus Maclise, poet and original drummer with The Velvet Underground.
Ira Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Street loft, from Mylar Chamber, New York, late 1960s
Ira Cohen's mylar photographs propose a theatre where actors act out their parts as they go along. It is a making strange.
He says:
I never wanted to be a photographer like the commercial photographers. For me, it was more about the involvement of the mirror, and scrying, reflection, crystal-ball-gazing, trying to get to some other place. It was all about reflection, in the deepest sense of the word.
Though quite well known amongst a certain coterie of artists, poets, intellectuals, collectors, and performers, he has received very little to no attention and he was never been asked to publish a big book of either his poetry or photographs.
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