LEE COHEN AGE: 54 ARRIVED: 1981 THE JOB: Man Behind the Lens


“Quintessential dirt bag” best describes photographer Lee Cohen’s fi rst incarnation in Utah. Cohen was spending a year off from college at Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin when he convinced a buddy to accompany him on a road trip to the Wasatch. “We slept in a tent pitched next to the creek in Gad Valley at Snowbird,” he says. Cohen was immediately smitten with Utah but returned to school in New York later that year. The day after graduation, however,


he hit the road back to Utah to “enjoy the splendors of Little Cottonwood Canyon,” he says. Cohen began building his street cred as a ski photographer soon after his return, shooting pictures of his friends in the winter while working construction in the summer. The tide fi nally began to turn around 1995, and in 1998 demand for Cohen’s work reached critical mass. “That was the year. I had a great group of skiers and all of a sudden I was selling a lot more


photos,” he says. Now, to say Cohen is to Alta as Ansel Adams is to Yosemite is not an exaggeration. His credits include covers of all the national ski magazines and many lifestyle pubs. Last winter Cohen released Alta Magic, a photographic homage to his adopted hometown with essays written by 50 people who love the place just as much as he does. “Sure, Alta has great snow but its sum is much greater than its parts,” Cohen says.


ESee how Lee masters his craft at skiutah.com/powderpeople Find Lee’s book Alta Magic on his website, leecohen.com WINTER 2013–14 SKI UTAH 75


WINTER 2013-14 SKI UTAH 4


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100