Preservationist photographer, based in Portland, OR.

What is a preservationist photographer? It’s a term that I made up.

I needed a label to describe what is important to my approach to photography. I take pictures to bring focus to things that I would like to help preserve. Mostly these things are endangered, as in at risk of becoming extinct. I am drawn to things of value that perhaps are not as widely appreciated as they should be or once were. I also like to highlight the preservation work of others.

I like to work on projects as typologies - collections of photographs that are of related subjects taken and displayed with a similar approach. The best known early photographic typology was done by the German couple Hilla and Bernhard Becher. Since then many photographers have used this approach.

However, I don’t strive to have a single, recognizable photographic style. Instead I design a style and approach that I think works well for the project or subject matter. Perhaps this is a style of a sort? In any case, each of my projects looks somewhat different.

Please contact me directly for projects or to inquire about purchasing my work.

aaron.michael.cohen@gmail.com
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