There Is No Eye: John Cohen Photographs

by Greil Marcus, John Cohen

Introduction by Greil Marcus. Preface by Patti Smith. Art Direction by Yolanda Cuomo. Be it in the Peruvian Andes, in Kentucky bluegrass country, in the Gospel churches of Brooklyn, or in Greenwich Village with Bob Dylan and the Beats, famed musician John Cohen's vision transcends history, even while it distills the spirit of a period and a place. There Is No Eye, Cohen's first monograph, is a guided tour through the worlds of outsider artists, poets, and musicians. Cohen's lyrical stories of the cultures he has encountered complement his photographs taken over the past five decades. Featuring never-before-seen photographs of legendary Beat generation icons, from literary lions Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso to artists and photographers Grace Hartigan, Franz Kline, Red Grooms, and Robert Frank, and a panoply of American Roots musicians, from Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Muddy Waters to Doc Watson, Elizabeth Cotton, and Roscoe Holcomb, There Is No Eye captures some of the most influential artists of our time.

Genres: Photography, Art, Music

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics. In recent years he has taught at Berkeley, Princeton, Minnesota, NYU, and the New School in New York. He lives in Oakland, California.

Reviews

[Dottie Suggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful images of NYC's Greenwich village in the 60's and the people of the Appalachian mountains. Bluegrass and beatnik personalities are captured here in the pages of the book. Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and a host of other musicians in their youth. Well worth a look. The epilogue is by Patti Smith, poet and rock star that was around all of the NY scene when these photos were taken.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aside from the image on the cover of Woodie Guthrie, none of the photographs struck a chord with me. Maybe on a differnet day they would have.