Thomas Joshua Cooper

Thomas Joshua Cooper is an American photographer. He was born in San Francisco in 1946. Cooper is considered one of the best contemporary landscape photographers.

Thomas Joshua Cooper

Cooper studied at the Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1969. Three years later he received a master's in photography from the University of New Mexico.

Nowadays, Cooper lives in Glasgow, Scotland. He is the founding head of photography at the Glasgow School of Art.

Cooper's images can involve days, weeks or sometimes even months of preparation and research. That's why according to Cooper he doesn't "take" his photographs, but "finds" and "makes" them. Travelling all over the world, he has visited some of the most isolated places on earth. The choice of location always begins with a map. He picks a location on the map, tracks it down and achieves the photograph he wants.

Cooper uses an AGFA camera that's over a 100 years old. He also uses specially made photographic plates. With the use of a chiaroscuro technique, using the highly contrasting variations of light and shade in his photographs, combined with the silver prints layered in accentuating selenium and gold chloride, he achieves exactly what he wants from the landscapes. Whether it's the unique identity of a wave, the velvet looking flow of the water or the visceral geology of a rock formation.

Some of his work is really inspiring to me. All these black and white images with the high contrast and that velvet look of water is something I certainly will use in my own work at some point in time. I would like to think some small elements are perhaps already visible in my exterior work. There are always some images that aren't to one's taste, but overall he's definitely a photographer at the top of our profession.

Image Sources:

http://www.fadwebsite.com/2009/05/06/thomas-joshua-cooper-true-at-haunch-of-venison-review-by-hannah-hayes-walker/
http://www.northuist.org/blog/2012/02/06/thomas-joshua-cooper/
http://www.gmggallery.com/exhibition82.html