Biography
Richard Kagan was born in Philadelphia in 1945 and followed a circuitous path to become
a photographer. He bought his first camera and began doing street photography while a
student at Temple University. However, after leaving college in 1965 to practice Zen
Buddhism in New York City, he became so impressed with the silent eloquence of handmade
objects he pawned the camera to buy woodworking tools. After 2 years of apprenticeships,
he opened his own shop in 1972 where he designed and made one-of a-kind and limited
production furniture. Kagan taught at Philadelphia College of Art/University of the Arts from
1977 to 1987, and exhibited his furniture at the American Craft Museum in NY, and museums
and institutions throughout the U.S. A chronic back condition and the negative effects of an
operation forced the premature closing of his studio in 1987. After a period of despair, during
which time he completed work on a self-published book of poetry, he decided to return to
school to study his earlier love -- photography, thus bringing him back to where he started.
Kagan had his first solo photography exhibition in 1990. In 1993, he received a grant from the Arts Council of Wales which allowed him to work in Britain and Europe for four and half months and resulted in an exhibition of landscape photography at the Royal National Eisteddfod in Wales. Not surprisingly Kagan brought to photography some of the same aesthetic concerns with which he had made furniture, among them a quest for quiet, understated elegant forms. His two main bodies of work are Landscapes, done primarily in Europe, and Iron Portraits -- austere portraits of tools and objects.He works exclusively in black and white using traditional darkroom techniques. Richard Kagan has had 15 solo photography exhibitions in the US, Britain, and South America and articles about the work have appeared in Black & White Magazine and the Photo Review. His work is represented in public and private collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Washington Convention Center, Lehigh University and others. He lives and works in Philadelphia
Kagan had his first solo photography exhibition in 1990. In 1993, he received a grant from the Arts Council of Wales which allowed him to work in Britain and Europe for four and half months and resulted in an exhibition of landscape photography at the Royal National Eisteddfod in Wales. Not surprisingly Kagan brought to photography some of the same aesthetic concerns with which he had made furniture, among them a quest for quiet, understated elegant forms. His two main bodies of work are Landscapes, done primarily in Europe, and Iron Portraits -- austere portraits of tools and objects.He works exclusively in black and white using traditional darkroom techniques. Richard Kagan has had 15 solo photography exhibitions in the US, Britain, and South America and articles about the work have appeared in Black & White Magazine and the Photo Review. His work is represented in public and private collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Washington Convention Center, Lehigh University and others. He lives and works in Philadelphia
