Brian Cohen: April 2026
London-born and raised, and now based in Pittsburgh, photographer Brian Cohen is known for his deeply human, justice-oriented documentary work. In addition to his commercial work, his images – spanning street, landscape, and portrait photography – have been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, and the British Journal of Photography, and exhibited internationally from Pittsburgh to London to Addis Ababa.
Brian’s current project focuses on Pittsburgh’s creative community, honoring the people shaping the city’s cultural life. In addition to his commercial and artistic practice, he is the founder of The Documentary Works, a collaborative initiative that brings together artists and designers to produce socially engaged visual storytelling.
Brian holds an MFA in Photography from the Royal College of Art and a Ph.D. in Art History, from Binghamton University. He teaches both at Chatham University.
Social documentary photographer Lewis Hine once said, “if I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.” Like many people who lug around a camera of whatever description, making photographs seems to be the way I can best express myself, a way of channeling my curiosity about the world and communicating this to others. Sometimes I raise my camera to celebrate all that is good and beautiful about life; on other occasions, it is how I manage my frustration with how things are. Making photographs can be about showing how things actually look, or it can be about organising elements within a frame to create relationships that don’t exist in everyday reality. It is about looking, and paying attention; about telling stories, and making up stories; about making visual connections between things, within and beyond the frame; about finding the beauty and the magical in the mundane. Above all, it is about creating the space within which to bring people together.
Upcoming Exhibitions:
Natural Re:Collections – a group exhibit at the Frick Environmental Center celebrating 10 years of the FEC. April 1–June 25, 2026
Portraits of Frick Park (working title) – solo exhibit at the FEC, December 2026 through March 2027
Reflections on 10/27 (working title) – with Joshua Franzos, at the American Jewish Museum, spring 2027
In production, Pittsburgh Creatives (working title).
