Lee Cott
Not Quite Architecture
These impressionist images consider photography as an alternative representation of reality and recollection. After years of photographing buildings with careful attention to light, shadow and detail to convey a sense of reality and permanence, I’m now making photographs of buildings of another sort. Intended to express the energy of architecture they also imply a sense of impermanence and the passage of time. Are these images the antithesis of architectural photography? They are photographs of buildings but they are not quite images of architecture as we know it.
Artist Bio
Lee Cott’s interest in photography and architecture began side by side while he was a student at Pratt Institute and at Harvard University. After a career as a practicing architect and university professor, photography is his creative focus. His images, seen through the eyes of an architect, elevate ordinary and iconic buildings into objects of beauty and mystery. His current work considers photography as an alternative representation of reality and how this stimulates memory.
Cott has photographed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. Images from his early travel portfolio, ‘Prairie Vernacular,’ were published in Design and Environmentmagazine.Using his private collection of color photo images made over the course of his lifetime, Cotthas lectured on architecture and urban design at Harvard University, The Fogg Museum, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Peabody Essex Museum and The Boston Public Library.
Cott has exhibited in juried shows at the Concord Art Association including their annual Francis Roddy Open Competition and the Chautauqua Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art as well as the Griffin Museum of Photography. Largely self-taught, Cott has studied at the New England School of Photography, The Maine Media Workshops and Atelier 28 and 30 at the Griffin Museum.
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