Au Harem

Silver gelatin print. New York, circa late 1960s. A seminal, psychedelic "mylar chamber" photo by Ira Cohen, signed by the artist. Cohen (1935-2011), an American poet, artist, underground filmmaker, and photographer, spent the early 1960s in Tangier, Morocco, where he lived and worked with William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Paul Bowles. After returning to New York in the late 1960s, Cohen developed and perfected the “mylar chamber” photography process, producing distorted, iconic mirror portraits, such as these.