Lisa Cohen traveled a surprisingly unconventional route on her way to becoming a professional photographer. Here's the back-story: A self-declared "escaped lawyer" who received her B.A. from Columbia College-Columbia University and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, she entered the independent music business after 3 years of practicing law. Running independent record labels, working one-on-one with artists, and being immersed in the creativity, emotion, grit and chaos of the East Village rock gauntlet and indie music biz in general was a life-changing experience.

Lisa's style of shooting is definitely informed by her rock-and-roll back-story. She prefers a bold, gritty, unconventional and even risky rock edge with a bent toward an image that’s “moving” and “alive” rather than "just a pretty picture” where the personality doesn’t reach out and grab you. Each image has to make something move inside the viewer when they see it, even if they can't quite pinpoint what exactly moved or why. Tension and focusing on something fabulous in isolation (a glimpse of personality, an expression, an element) are hallmarks of her style. An image that feels and is GENUINE is of utmost importance.

She loves shooting musicians and doing portrait work because she loves capturing personalities. As for personalities, if she can get one that will scream out of a photo, then that’s awesome; but she will find and capture the smaller and/or more subdued personalities as well as the larger-than-life ones through her unique way of eliciting honest responses from her subjects. She is also passionate about creating art images emphasizing light, color, mood and textures. Some of her art is informed by her previous experience with optic neuritis, some channels the color and energy of music, and some reveals simple gratitude.

Currently, she specializes in music photography, portrait photography, art photography (custom art photography services to support branding campaigns are also available) and model portfolios (with a specialty in plus-size models). She is also creating an ongoing photo campaign in conjunction with Makeover Your MS, a nonprofit organization of which she is Managing Director.

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