Brian Kosoff is an accomplished master of the photographic process. After spending most of his life in photography he still considers himself a student of the medium! As a teenager, Brian was inspired by his uncle, a serious amateur photographer, and went on to spend 25 years as an award winning NYC advertising photographer. His meticulous work in advertising photographer brought him assignments for many Fortune 500 companies. It was the ideal laboratory to lay the groundwork for Brian’s luminous fine art photography.

Look at one of Brian’s prints and see an image of peace and perfection. Perfection of the entire process…printing, composition, tonal range and perfection in the singular thread evident in all his work regardless of the diverse subject matter. In spite of his gallerists and collectors raving about his virtuosity, Kosoff is rarely satisfied and is constantly motivated to experiment and stretch the scope of his work. “Ironically, the discipline to master the craft gives a photographer the freedom to be creative”.

Though the technical skills Brian brings to his craft are formidable, his motivation to create photographs is quite simple. “When I see a special moment or quality of light, something that moves me, I want to express it photographically. I want my photo to tell a story, have meaning, or have beauty” .  His vision and photographic skill brings an ethereal quality and mood to the images he’s created. His minimalist, perfectionist’s eye eliminates any element that might break the beautiful mood he sets by what he’s chosen to show us in the boundaries of the print. “I believe that any element not adding to the design, beauty or meaning detracts from the image and can obscure it’s expression”.

“There is something so spiritual for me about trekking out to the dunes of Death Valley before the sun comes up, when the stars are still in the sky and there’s no noise accept the sound of sand blowing.  As the sun hits the dunes they start to come alive.” Though Kosoff says divine inspiration does not factor into his artistic process, these tranquil photographs of sand, rocks and water seem to describe a higher state of enlightenment.  Kosoff ascribes this to his minimalist nature: “I tend to like very bleak landscapes because they are composed of simple shapes. The effect of light becomes more obvious in that environment, because everything is boiled down to the most basic elements,” he says. This Zen-like simplicity is the essence of Kosoff’s meditative images.

Brian is well schooled in all the classic techniques of the masters of photography, but he has not shunned the use of technology entirely either. Brian uses 4×5 view cameras, Fuji 680 and Fuji 617 cameras, Mamiya 7 rangefinders and Rolleiflex SLR’s. He chooses his equipment based on the destination at hand. Brian heads out for months at a time heavily equipped for the sole purpose of his photographic pursuits. Included with the arsenal of the equipment are night vision, laser rangefinder, GPS, satellite image and topography software, astronomical software to help determine Sun and Moon positions, even equipment and books to help forecast the moment to moment weather.