George Cohen

I was honored to photograph Dr. George Cohen in 2012 when he invited me to visit him at his home/workshop in Somerset, England. When I was first introduced to him at an event in London, I was intstantly attracted, possibly because he seemed a bit mad, as in crazy, and because he was such a great talker. I was absolutely fascinated, and then when someone told me he was a psychiatrist and gave it all up for motorcycles, I was blown away. As I saw it, he could have still been called a doctor for all he knew of the Norton motorcycle. From its complete history to every nut and bolt that went into each machine, he knew them well enough that he reproduced complete bikes as if they came off the original assembly line and wrote the long since out-of-print book, ‘Flat Tank Norton,’ for which I see copies going for close to $300. I had the good fortune to travel with George to the Goodwood Revival in Chichester, West Sussex, where he volunteered as a mechanic with one of the teams as I photographed the event. I so enjoyed my time with him as he told stories with incredible wit and boundless enthusiasm that I always looked forward to returning for more. Sadly, this won’t happen as George passed, way before his time, in 2016.