For 10 years, artist Jesse Cohen honed his photography skills at night, after spending long hours working in drug development at Georgetown University during the day.

But, after funding from the National Institutes of Health ran out and his science research job ended, a fortuitous email helped Cohen make the jump from science lab to dark room.

The email, sent to Cohen from a friend of a friend, asked if he knew of anyone interested in managing a frame shop.

The frame shop in question was L’Eclat de Verre, and the shop was looking for a manager for its new Chevy Chase location.

Cohen, who couldn’t believe his luck, was excited about the opportunity to “be able to look at art every day of my life.”

“I loved the people, they were so inviting,” Cohen says, adding that he was in awe of the Georgetown location’s gorgeous architecture.

He thought to himself: “If I could be surrounded by these people and what they do every day, it would be a message from beyond.”

Now, as manager of the frame store, Cohen is able to devote himself full-time to art, whether it’s running his artdc Gallery in Hyattsville, connecting artists on artdc.org, or pursuing photography in his spare time.

“I’ve been very passionate about staying chemical with my art,” says Cohen, whose love affair with photography began during the critical switchover from film to digital.

“I avoided digital technology for a long time.”

Cohen’s fascination with the dark room began in the mid-1990s, when he was a young photojournalist working for his school’s newspaper at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  

He took pictures of his friends with the paper’s Nikon 8008 and spent hours in the dark room experimenting with different processing techniques.

“Since that point in the '90s, I’ve been fascinated by the dark room,” Cohen says.

“I love the smell of the chemicals. I love the environment of watching your images develop. There’s just something really exciting about the process.”

Cohen is intrigued with printing negatives and distressing black and white images using alternative processes. 

“I’ve started to try to bring the viewer's eye into this idea of looking at the negative,” Cohen says.

Cohen has had solo shows in New York City and Washington, DC.  His photographs are currently on display at the Twisted Vines in Arlington, VA.