Retirement Home c. 1970

Here we have a photograph called "Retirement Home" by Lynne Cohen. It's a black and white image, printed on photographic paper. What grabs me is the quietness. It’s not just a picture of furniture; it’s more about how these objects sit together, their stillness creating a kind of atmosphere. I keep coming back to this one power outlet set high up on the wall, lonely, unused. The lines of the TV's power cord and the aerial create an off-kilter ziggurat that echoes the square shapes in the sofa and chair. Cohen’s work reminds me a little of Ed Ruscha’s deadpan photos, where the subject is almost secondary to the way it’s presented. Both artists have this knack for finding poetry in the mundane. Ultimately, this image is less about a retirement home and more about the quiet, unresolved spaces we all inhabit.