Photo: © John Cohen
From spirituals and gospel to blues and soul, the sound of black America has made itself felt in popular music for centuries. For many, the vocal styles and rhythms began in church, a place where the soul and the body are connected through the Word. And so it was to the church that we return to embrace these roots, to look at the ways in which this sacred space becomes a vessel for beauty, art, and expression.
With Walking in the Light (Steidl), John Cohen takes us on a journey through the Jim Crow years in the north and the south, photographing in the black churches of East New York, on the streets of New Haven, in the home of blind Reverend Gary Davis, and to Johns Island, South Carolina, where Gullah children connect to African ancestors through games and play. Taken between 1954-1964, Cohen’s photographs evoke the powerful spirits resonating deep within the music.
In the book’s afterword, Cohen writes, “Photography, art and music have been brained together in my life. At Yale Art School, the camera led me away from the studio and from middle-class life…. Sometimes I hopped on a New Haven city bus and traveled to then end of the line then walked back to town having adventures with the camera. Soot-covered track workers shoveled coal before immense piles of cola. The darkness of a boxing gym was welcoming and didn’t evoke violence.”
© John Cohen
In 1955, Herbert Matter invited Cohen to make sound recordings in gospel churches for a film project he was making. By that time, Cohen had already been recording the music of the blind Reverend Gary Davis, revealing a shared passion for music, art, and dance. Cohen traveled with Matter to churches in Harlem and East New York, some of his first forays into photography, which are showcased in Walking in the Light.
Cohen later traveled to Johns Island, SC, in 1964, in search of singer Janie Hunter. Cohen recalls, “On the island, eight-year old kids performed African games, followed immediately by 1920s Charleston dance steps, Kung Fu moves, and modern Motown choreography. Within moments, they shifted gears from one ear to another.”
© John Cohen
Cohen cites Hunter as the driving force, quoting her as saying, “I want my children to know just what I know. In this slavery land, we’re going to have a good time, way by and by.”
© John Cohen
It is this spirit of freedom and power that is felt in Cohen’s photographs, of a spirit higher than the forces of the earth, and an energy greater than one man or woman alone. It is the sense of being part of something greater than one’s self, united across time to the past, present, and future. It is Cohen’s ability to see the sounds we hear, to translate the audio into a visual experience. Walking in the Light is a hymn of beauty and grace to the healing energies of the black church in the United States.
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
