© 2002 Adger W. Cowans
" I am practicing with my eyes as a musician does with his instrument."
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Bio/Rez
Adger W. Cowans
Nationality: American
Occupation: Photographer,Artist
PERSONAL
Born Adger W. Cowans, September 19, 1936, Columbus Ohio.
Education: Ohio University,
BFA, 1958. Memberships:
Former member, The Heliographers, African Commune of Bad
Relevant Artists (AFRICOBRA), Kamoinge Workshop; founding
member, International Black Photographers; current member,
International Photographers Local 644. Addresses: Home--New York,
NY. Representative-
CAREER
Photographer, US Navy, 1958-60; assistant to Gordon Parks,
Life magazine, 1961-62; freelance photographer, 1963-; visiting
photography instructor, Wayne State University, Cleveland Institute
of Arts, University of Michigan; artist in residence, College of New Rochelle, New York, 1994.
AWARDS
John Hay Whitney Foundation grant, 1962;
Best photography, Yolo International Exhibition in California, 1963.
NARRATIVE ESSAY:
Since the mid-1960s, Adger W. Cowans has established a successful
career as a still photographer for the Hollywood film industry, with credits
ranging from Nothing But a Man (1964) to City Hall (1996). While Cowans'
film photographs are doubtless his most widely-seen work, his artistic
practice also encompasses fashion, travel, landscape, and still-life
photography; portraits; and even paintings. One of Cowans' most famous
images is an often-reproduced portrait of Malcolm X.
Cowans' artistic influences are just as diverse as his creative output.
Among his most important influences, he lists Edward Weston, a fine-art
photographer from the early twentieth-century, and Gordon Parks, Sr., a
photographer for Life magazine. While his work may be extremely broad,
Cowans brings a similar visible sensibility and perfectionism to each project;
according to Vivien Raynor, writing in the New York Times, he "describes
himself as practicing with his eyes as a musician does with his instrument."
Adger W. Cowans was born on September 19, 1936, in Columbus, Ohio.
After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Ohio University in Athens,
where he studied with Clarence H. White Jr., an influential photographer and
founding member of the group Photo- Secession. According to Les Krantz,
writing in the book American Photographers, "Cowans' studies with Clarence
H. White Jr. and Minor White were early influences on his approach to
photography as an art form."
After earning a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1958, Cowans joined the U.S.
Navy, working as a Navy photographer until 1960. The following year, he landed
a job as an assistant to Gordon Parks at Life magazine. Later in his career, he
would have the opportunity to work with fashion photographer Henri Clark, who
would also influence Cowans' work.
During the early 1960s, Cowans photographed many of the activities of civil
rights groups, particularly the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) and the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). In 1962, he received a
John Hay Whitney Foundation grant, a prestigious award that allowed him to
pursue his own creative work. In 1963, he won the award for best photography
at the Yolo International Exhibition in California. That same year, he launched
his career as a freelance photographer.
During this time, Cowans was associated with the Boston group The Heliographers--
"heliography" being an early term for "photography"- -which included such notable
photographers as Paul Caponigro and Jerry Ullsman. In 1965, Cowans had his first
major exhibition at the Heliography Gallery, one of the first galleries in New York to
consider photography to be "fine art," on a level with more traditional art forms such
as painting or sculpture.
Throughout the 1960s, Cowans' work was shown in exhibitions all around the
world. In 1966, he exhibited his photographs at the First World Festival of Negro
Arts in Dakar, Senegal. Two years later, he was included in the group shows
"Photography in the Fine Arts" at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and
"Photography USA" at the Decordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
In addition to his association with the Heliographers, Cowans was one of the
founding members of the organization International Black Photographers.
He also belonged to the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AFRICOBRA),
a group which began in Chicago in the late 1960s, and the Kamoinge Workshop.
He participated in several shows with members of these groups, including the
Heliographers exhibition, shown at Lever House and George Eastman House;
and the Kamoinge Workshop exhibition, which travelled to the International
Center of Photography, the Chicago School of Design, Harvard University, and
the Studio Museum in Harlem.
In the mid-1960s, Cowans began to achieve success as a still photographer
for the motion picture industry. He now has more than 30 feature films to his
credit, including Nothing But a Man (1964), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970),
The Way We Were (1973), On Golden Pond (1981), The Cotton Club (1984),
Dirty Dancing (1987), and City Hall (1996).
In 1977, Cowans exhibited photographs at The Second World Black and African
Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria. Four years later, his work was
included in the exhibition "Moments" at Greenespace Gallery in New York.
In 1994, Cowans had a mini-retrospective exhibition at the College of New
Rochelle in New York, where he was an artist-in-residence. The show included
more than 30 photographs--including portraits, street scenes, landscapes, and
still lifes--dating from the 1950s to the 1990s, as well as 18 of his paintings dating
from the 1970s to the 1990s. "Mr. Cowans is at his best when the subject is
nature," wrote critic Vivien Raynor in the New York Times. "Examples are a
beautiful shot of bare trees receding, black to gray, through mist illuminated by
a dim sun and the pictures of reflections in rippling water."
As for his paintings, Raynor wrote, "Mr. Cowans is craftsman enough in his prints,
but in his painting he becomes obsessive....With these canvases, Mr. Cowans
abandons the world for a realm where there is neither humanity nor weather--only
cold perfectionism expressed by means of luxuriant color and texture."
The following year, Cowans' work was shown at the Emily Lowe Gallery in Long
Island, New York "Mr. Cowans has spent many years photographing water, frozen
and fluid," wrote critic Helen A. Harrison in the New York Times. "His pictures invite
contemplation, for the nuances that emerge appear only gradually as the eye
penetrates the welter of surface rhythms.
Isolated from their surroundings, the images become suggestive, alluding to
veiled forms that seem both tangible and ephemeral."
Cowans' photographs have been published by such well-known periodicals as
Ebony, Esquire, Essence, Harper's Bazaar, Life, Look, Modern Photography,
the New York Times, Paris Match, and Time. His work has also been included
in Popular Photography Annual in 1966 and 1968, as well as Black Photographer's
Annual in 1973, 1974, and 1976.
In addition to his freelance career, Cowans has taught photography classes at
Wayne State University, the Cleveland Institute of Arts, and the University of
Michigan. His work has been collected by IBM Corporation, Rochester, New
York; IMP/GEH, also in Rochester; Shado Gallery, Oregon City, Oregon; and
the State Office Building in Harlem, New York.
SOURCES:
BOOKS
American Photographers, edited by Les Krantz, Facts on File, 1989.
Willis-Thomas, Deborah, Illustrated Bio-bibliography of Black Photographers,
1940-88, Garland Publishing, 1989.
PERIODICALS
New York Times, July 23, 1995, LI 12; March 13, 1994, WC 20.
© 2001-2002 Adger W. Cowans