Ira Cohen - Return To New York

Return To New York

Cohen returned to New York in the mid-1960s. There he published The Hashish Cookbook (Gnaoua Press, 1966), which had been written in Tangier at Brion Gysin's suggestion by Cohen's then-girlfriend Rosalind, under the pseudonym Panama Rose. In his loft on the Lower East Side, Cohen created the "mylar images", styled as "future icons" as developed by a "mythographer". Among the reflected artists in his mirror were John McLaughlin, William S. Burroughs and Jimi Hendrix - who said that looking at these photos was like "looking through butterfly wings". In this photographic process Cohen explored the whole spectrum from infrared to black light. In 1968 he directed the "phantasmaglorical" film Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda and produced Marty Topp's Paradise Now, a film of the Living Theatre's historic American tour. was inspired by the films of Kenneth Anger and Sergei Parajanov and began as an extension of his photography work with his Mylar chamber. On May 31, 1970 Raphael Aladdin Cohen was born in New York City to Jhil McEntyre and Ira Cohen; Raphael Aladdin currently resides in Harlem with his wife, the dancer and choreographer Kristina Berger.