Photography Atelier

Marcy Cohen

The Birds, the Sky and the Sea

During the past year and a half, craving solace and close human interaction during the global pandemic and after the loss of a dear friend and lifelong partner, in forced isolation, I connected with the natural world and this series evolved.

The birds became companions and evangelists.  Messengers, providing spiritual guidance during dark and frightening days.  Metaphors for a world beyond everyday concern, parables for freedom without boundaries, and augurs for the future.  The birds were a source of inspiration, their strength to survive despite challenges due to grueling annual migrations, loss of habitat and climate change.  The sky and the heavens were a reminder of infinite possibility, hope and freedom, the corals in the sea revealing information about the past that will predict the future and the sky shining down optimism and perspective.

This series is about providing perspective and the strength to rise above challenges. The work was fueled by a desire to escape reality while appreciating the world in all its infinite complexity. With this project I aim to provoke hope during challenging times and transcendency through connection to the natural world.

Artist Bio

Marcy Cohen’s photographs transform what the eye sees through the illusion of the camera. Her photography is driven by passionate curiosity and the desire to escape the every day.

Marcy is a New Yorker, not the Park Avenue type, but raised in the Bronx around the corner from the old Yankee Stadium.  As a teenager she explored the city by subway and became fascinated with the streets, people and neighborhoods of NYC and began intensely shooting photographs all around the boroughs.  Marcy now lives north of the City, up the Hudson River in Croton-on-Hudson, spending most of her time in and around New York City while traveling and photographing in over 60 countries throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. She studied art and photography at the School of Visual Arts, the International Center of Photography and Maine Media. She is an Elected Artist of the Art League RI, Exhibiting Member of the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, the Ground Glass Association and the Colorado Photographic Arts Center. Her photographs are exhibited nationally and internally in solo and group shows and online on Artsy and online publications such as F-Stop and The Curated Fridge.  She is  is currently involved in Synergy II, a joint project between The Art League RI and the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution (“WHOI”). The coral images in this series were created as part of Synergy II and the result of a collaboration with Sujata Murty, who recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at WHOI.  She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany, SUNY

Marcy also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the CUE Art Foundation, a not-for-profit contemporary art space in New York City dedicated to creating career and educational opportunities for emerging and under recognized artists and is a Trustee of the Museum of American Finance.