PETER J. COHEN COLLECTION

Peter J. Cohen is a New York-based collector of snapshots and vernacular photographs. Spanning the late 19th century to the 1980s, the Peter J. Cohen Collection (PJCC) is one of the largest privately held collections of “anonymous” photographs in the U.S. Material from the PJCC has been donated to and featured in exhibitions at over 60 major art institutions worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Morgan Library, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria & Albert, and The Rijks. (See here for a comprehensive list of institutions.) Located in downtown New York, the collection is accessible by appointment. 

The PJCC currently houses over 100,000 photographs, encompassing many different processes and formats, including gelatin silver prints, cyanotypes, hand-tinted photos, chromogenic color prints, Polaroids, real photo postcards, and complete photo albums. The archive is organized into around 130 categories (and counting.) The breadth of these categories is testament both to Cohen’s extensive collecting interests and to the highly diverse nature of anonymous photography. Taken for the most part by amateurs and ordinary people, these photographs offer a highly unique look into a wide range of social moments, cultural practices, and relationships to image-making. 

The term “snapshot” was popularized shortly after the invention of the Kodak box camera in the 1880s. The term came to describe photographs of everyday life using a handheld camera, often yielding unexpected discoveries that are results of intention, mistake, or chance. As “anonymous” photographs are rescued they become societal artifacts that collectively trace a history of private image-making. The PJCC invites curators, scholars, educators, artists and others to study these photographs for a range of purposes. 

While still avidly acquiring, Cohen’s goal is to continue donating the vast majority of his collection to museums and educational institutions during the coming years and welcomes related inquiries and visits. 

 

Learn more about Peter and his collection in this video courtesy of University of Michigan Museum of Art.

 
 

Permanent Collections

Amon Carter Museum of American Art

The Art Institute of Chicago

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Cincinnati Museum of Art

Columbus Museum of Art

George Eastman Museum

Houston Museum of Fine Arts

Memphis Brooks Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Morgan Library

Museum of Modern Art

Nelson-Atkins Museum

New Orleans Museum of Art

Pier 24

Portland Art Museum

Rhode Island School of Design Museum

St. Louis Art Museum

Vassar College Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

Victoria & Albert Museum