Nadia Lee Cohen / Twisted 50’s

Nadia Lee Cohen is a London-based photographer currently going for a BA in
photography at the London College of Fashion. Eye-popping and delightful, Cohen’s photographs channel motifs of Americana and Britain from the 1950s, 60s and 70s; melodramatic hair and make-up, saturated colors, and the characters to fit. She is a master of setting the scene, styling her subjects and incorporating her own props which she spends plenty of time collecting.

Cohen creates glossy, kitschy, surreal scenes with in-your-face female characters. Inspired in part by the Free the Nipple campaign, a movement against the censorship of the female body, Cohen’s
highly stylized, saturated images aim to confront unrealistic depictions
of the female form in fashion and advertising.

She describes her aesthetic as influenced by cinema and cinematic
photography, and also references her obsession with strong,
unconventional characters such as drag performer Divine (as seen in Pink Flamingos), and photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s book of male prostitutes, Hustlers, in terms of narrative-led images that look like film stills.