Cohen, Lynne. Occupied Territory by Lynne Cohen.

Aperture, 1987.  Foreword by David Byrne. Essay by David Mellor. Edited and designed by William A. Ewing. [Photographs in black-and-white taken all over North America of interior spaces by Lynne Cohen divided into chapters: Facsimiles, Conglomerates, Preoccupations, Sanctuaries, Dislocations, and Controls.] First edition.  Like new, hardcover with protected dust jacket. Summary:

Occupied Territory (1987) by Lynne Cohen, published by Aperture, is a monograph showcasing 20 years of black-and-white photography capturing domestic and institutional interiors.

Key Summary & Highlights

• Institutional & Indoor Spaces: Cohen turns her view camera toward empty classrooms, science laboratories, testing facilities, waiting offices, and military installations where function triumphs over aesthetics.

• Absence of People: The photographs deliberately exclude human figures, letting the rooms' artificial arrangements, odd symmetries, and uncanny disjunctions speak for themselves.

• Readymade Sculpture & Artifice: Drawing on her background in sculpture, Cohen records interior settings as readymade installations, highlighting phony attempts at warmth or individualism—such as fake wallpaper clouds or synthetic interior decor—that ultimately reveal social engineering and standardized space.

• New Topographics Connection: The work aligns her practice with the tradition of "New Topographics" photography, treating interior spaces with a cool, detached, and objective gaze.

Biographical Summary

Lynne Cohen (1944–2014) was an American-Canadian photographer born in Racine, Wisconsin. She initially trained in sculpture and printmaking at the University of Wisconsin and the Slade School of Fine Art in London before earning her MFA at Eastern Michigan University and adopting photography in the early 1970s. Moving to Canada in 1973, she served as a long-time professor at the University of Ottawa for three decades while building an international reputation for her precise, large-format photographs of depopulated interior environments. Over her career, she published notable monographs such as No Man's Land and Camouflage, and was honored with prestigious accolades, including the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts (2005) and the inaugural Scotiabank Photography Award (2011).