Personal Vision

Master American photographer Adger Cowans's predominantly black-and-white photography is collected in this monograph of original images taken over the past forty years. Cowans is one of the great unrecognized photographic luminaries of our time, inspired by growing up in a family that appreciated and respected the arts. Unusually for the time, his mother Beatrice always herself had a camera in hand and encouraged young Cowans to pursue his passion with vigor and dedication. And he did this with gusto and imagination, creating one of the major archives of a living American photographer today, seen here for the first time in an expansive collection.

In his works we see shadows stretching across a New York City sidewalk, strollers in Harlem with umbrellas during a snowstorm, children playing in water emerging from a fire hydrant on a hot summer day, gorgeous portraits of starlets, and children smiling with balloons that Mr. Cowans gifted to them—an incredible range of artworks that mirror the greats from Cartier-Bresson to Lee Friedlander to Edward Weston and Richard Avedon.