Le Jenshel | American, 1949 -
Diane Cook | American, 1954 -
Diane Cook and Len Jenshel are two of America's foremost landscape photographers, interpreting culture and environment for over twenty-five years. They met in 1979, were married in 1983, and began collaborating in 1991. Their first joint project, an exhibition and book about volcanic landscape, Hot Spots (Bullfinch Press, 1996) won Golden Light Award for best landscape photography book of 1996 and was among American Photo Magazine's "Best Photo Books of the Year." Their most recent book, Aquarium (Aperture, 2003), explores the spectacle and the packaging of nature in public aquariums. Currently they are collaborating with their unique style of pairing black and white prints by Cook with color images by Jenshel on several new projects. On Ice is a sumptuous look at Greenland's glaciers and icebergs, and deals with the issues of beauty and impermanence in the age of global warming. The Edge of New York: Waterfront Photographs is an exploration of the 500 plus miles of waterfront in the five boroughs of New York City, a project supported by grants from The Design Trust for Public Space and NYSCA. Gardens at Night is a meditation on what night reveals in the environment of a created paradise.
Diane Cook had been photographing the complexity of landscape since her graduation from Rutgers University in 1976. Ms. Cook has been a recipient of two New York State Council on the Arts grants, in 1987 and 2003, and a Photo Urbanism grant from the Design Trust for Public Space in 2002. Her work is in numerous collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, and the L.A. County Museum in Los Angeles, among others.
Len Jenshel is one of the pioneers of "The New Color," photographing landscape and culture since 1974. His books include Travels in the American West (Smithsonian, 1992), Charmed Places (Abrams, 1988), and Charleston and the Low Country (Spacemaker Press, 1997). His photographs have been exhibited internationally in one-person shows at the Yokohama Museum in Tokyo, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the International Center of Photography in New York City, to name a few. His work is represented in over one hundred collections worldwide. He has received numerous grants including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts, two from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Graham Foundation, and the Design Trust for Public Space.
In addition to their personal projects, they also work on assignments for major domestic and international magazines including National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, House & Garden, The New Yorker, National Geographic Traveler, New York Times' Sophisticated Traveler, Washington Post Magazine, Fortune, Men's Journal, Audubon, Departures, Civilization, Travel & Leisure, GEO, Life, T&L Golf, Organic Style, Budget Travel, Nest, Outside, Town & Country, and many others.
Len and Diane currently live and work in New York City.
ARTISTS' STATEMENT: ON ICE SERIES
"Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven
That seemed as though ice burned and was but
more ice,
And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
So wild that every casual thought of this and that
Vanished."
W.B. Yeats, from The Cold Heaven
In 1997, on a flight home from Europe, the clouds parted and from 35,00 feet we saw Greenland for the first time. This immense frozen island that we saw from on high was mesmerizing. A few months later we made our way back to Greenland and began photographing in an unfamiliar and treacherous landscape, but one, nonetheless, possessed with a disarming beauty.
One of the threads that runs through our various projects is photographing places of astonishment and wonder. We returned many times to the polar regions to work amongst the ice - in all its forms, from imposing cathedrals of ice to their shattered remains. Sadly, over the years, each successive trip has revealed an accelerated rate of melting. For us, this project is a meditation on beauty and impermanence, in the age of global warming.
Diane Cook | American, 1954 -
Diane Cook and Len Jenshel are two of America's foremost landscape photographers, interpreting culture and environment for over twenty-five years. They met in 1979, were married in 1983, and began collaborating in 1991. Their first joint project, an exhibition and book about volcanic landscape, Hot Spots (Bullfinch Press, 1996) won Golden Light Award for best landscape photography book of 1996 and was among American Photo Magazine's "Best Photo Books of the Year." Their most recent book, Aquarium (Aperture, 2003), explores the spectacle and the packaging of nature in public aquariums. Currently they are collaborating with their unique style of pairing black and white prints by Cook with color images by Jenshel on several new projects. On Ice is a sumptuous look at Greenland's glaciers and icebergs, and deals with the issues of beauty and impermanence in the age of global warming. The Edge of New York: Waterfront Photographs is an exploration of the 500 plus miles of waterfront in the five boroughs of New York City, a project supported by grants from The Design Trust for Public Space and NYSCA. Gardens at Night is a meditation on what night reveals in the environment of a created paradise.
Diane Cook had been photographing the complexity of landscape since her graduation from Rutgers University in 1976. Ms. Cook has been a recipient of two New York State Council on the Arts grants, in 1987 and 2003, and a Photo Urbanism grant from the Design Trust for Public Space in 2002. Her work is in numerous collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, and the L.A. County Museum in Los Angeles, among others.
Len Jenshel is one of the pioneers of "The New Color," photographing landscape and culture since 1974. His books include Travels in the American West (Smithsonian, 1992), Charmed Places (Abrams, 1988), and Charleston and the Low Country (Spacemaker Press, 1997). His photographs have been exhibited internationally in one-person shows at the Yokohama Museum in Tokyo, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the International Center of Photography in New York City, to name a few. His work is represented in over one hundred collections worldwide. He has received numerous grants including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts, two from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Graham Foundation, and the Design Trust for Public Space.
In addition to their personal projects, they also work on assignments for major domestic and international magazines including National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, House & Garden, The New Yorker, National Geographic Traveler, New York Times' Sophisticated Traveler, Washington Post Magazine, Fortune, Men's Journal, Audubon, Departures, Civilization, Travel & Leisure, GEO, Life, T&L Golf, Organic Style, Budget Travel, Nest, Outside, Town & Country, and many others.
Len and Diane currently live and work in New York City.
ARTISTS' STATEMENT: ON ICE SERIES
"Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven
That seemed as though ice burned and was but
more ice,
And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
So wild that every casual thought of this and that
Vanished."
W.B. Yeats, from The Cold Heaven
In 1997, on a flight home from Europe, the clouds parted and from 35,00 feet we saw Greenland for the first time. This immense frozen island that we saw from on high was mesmerizing. A few months later we made our way back to Greenland and began photographing in an unfamiliar and treacherous landscape, but one, nonetheless, possessed with a disarming beauty.
One of the threads that runs through our various projects is photographing places of astonishment and wonder. We returned many times to the polar regions to work amongst the ice - in all its forms, from imposing cathedrals of ice to their shattered remains. Sadly, over the years, each successive trip has revealed an accelerated rate of melting. For us, this project is a meditation on beauty and impermanence, in the age of global warming.