Joshua Cogan

Biography

Joshua Cogan is a documentary photographer and anthropologist based in Washington, DC. His work for LiveHopeLove.com, based on his photojournalism alongside writer Kwame Dawes for “Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica” (VQR, Spring 2008) was the winner of a News and Documentary Emmy Award and the Webby People’s Voice award.

http://www.joshuacogan.com/

See Work

CRITICISM / Fall 2009

Kin

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

He has the surname that suggests
a contested kinship: Jefferson—
CRITICISM / Fall 2009

Believer

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

The house is in need of repair, but is—
for now, she says—still hers. After the storm,
she laid hands on what she could reclaim:
POETRY / Fall 2009

Prodigal I

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

Once, I was a daughter of this place:
daughter of Gwen, granddaughter
of Leretta, great of Eugenia McGee.
CRITICISM / Fall 2009

Prodigal II

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

I wanted to say I have come home
to bear witness, to read the sign
emblazoned on the church marquee—
CRITICISM / Fall 2009

Exegesis

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

On Saturday, when I come to see
my brother, they call him, over loudspeaker,
to the tower—a small guardroom
POETRY / Fall 2009

Benediction

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

I thought that when I saw my brother
walking through the gates of the prison,
he would look like a man entering his life. 
CRITICISM / Fall 2009

Congregation

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

Somewhere in the post-Katrina wreckage and disarray of my grandmother’s house, there is a photograph of my brother Joe and me, our arms around each other’s shoulders. We are at a long-gone nightclub in Gulfport, the Terrace Lounge, standing...
CRITICISM / Fall 2009

Tower

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

This week they are painting
the North Gulfport water tower.
CRITICISM / Fall 2009

Witness

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

Here is North Gulfport—
its liquor stores and car washes,
CRITICISM / Fall 2009

Watcher

By Natasha Trethewey ,  Photography by Joshua Cogan

At first, there was nothing to do but watch.
For days, before the trucks arrived, before the work
of clean-up, my brother sat on the stoop and watched.