Early Landscapes
March 1 – 26, 1986
The photographs in this project were the first body of work I made with a medium format film camera, from 1982 to 1986. It was also my first serious consideration of landscape.
After an extended trip to National Parks photographing people at leisure in those grand spaces, I decided to flip the switch. The environment was no longer a setting, but my primary subject. This new path, one that was more contemplative and deliberate, looked at the changes to the landscape wrought by contemporary life as well as the hand of nature.
In these early landscapes, I can see hallmarks of my current work, and that desire for nature to prevail.
Diane Cook has been photographing the changing landscape since her graduation from Rutgers University in 1976.
Diane has received numerous fellowships including two grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Design Trust for Public Space, and two grants from the National Geographic Society.
Her photographs have been exhibited in one-person shows at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Museum of the City of New York; Museum of the National Geographic Society, Washington, DC, and numerous galleries. Her work is in major collections, including L.A. County Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Portland Art Museum, to name a few.
She began collaborating on photographic projects with her husband Len Jenshel in 1990, exploring issues of beauty, boundary, culture, and the control of nature. Together they have published numerous books; HOT SPOTS: America’s Volcanic Landscape (Bulfinch Press, 1996), Aquarium (Aperture, 2003), and Wise Trees (Abrams, 2017).
Their work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, New York; George Eastman House, Rochester; ICP, New York; SFMoMA, San Francisco, among many others.
Diane resides in New York City, with her husband (and collaborator) Len Jenshel.