Alexander Coggin

Alexander Coggin is a 30-year-old American Artist living and working in Berlin, Germany. Born and bred in Philadelphia and North Carolina, Alexander is self-taught in Photography and formally trained in Theatre. He completed his B.F.A. in Theatre from Emerson College in 2007. Coggin’s work explores an intersection of candid human behavior, street photography, and staged still life images. Coggin’s work has been featured on many websites and publications, and he recently gained representation in the U.K. by House Of Juba. Working parallel between the mediums of Photography and Theatre, he founded a performance collective, called CALVIN KLEIN, in 2011. Today we share a selection of images from Alex’s portfolio.

“I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.” – Garry Winogrand

Alexander Coggin, a self-taught photographer, is still figuring it out. With his camera on his person at all times, Coggin explores the duality between lonely and staged interiors and candid and often personal human relationships. Shooting in bulk-times and less in a ‘series’, Coggin’s works contain an authorship and humor that is also present in his Theatre-making. Curiosity, voyeurship, and an immense respect for gesture are central themes to Coggin’s photography. Inspired by Rudolf von Laban’s work with gestures and Keith Johnstone’s work with status, both concepts learned in his Theatre training, Alexander Coggin functions under the documentary and photographic principle that “[a]ll the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” (William Shakespeare).

To view more of Alex’s work, visit his website.