January 2014
Artist’s Statement
I look back to the beginning of my career and see how much of an influence Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Ernst Haas and Pete Turner had on me. They all saw light in wonderful ways and it defined their subject matter with such brilliance. Today, I’m still chasing the light but I have more patience, as I usually have to wait for all the elements to come together. Over the past several years I have changed from primarily being a landscape photographer to a street photographer with my new work in Cuba. My latest project is The Cuban Peasant. I will be shooting with Julio Larramendi, a great Cuban photographer and friend. This journey will enable me to shoot both landscape and street, and I could not be more excited. Recently, I collaborated with Anne Brown, owner of The Arts Company, to go back to my roots of photography and show black-and-white images I recently shot. This has been exciting for me, to not use color as the primary item to sustain an image but to rely upon light, contrasts, shapes and lines. The negative and positive space can now become the essence within the image, a very quiet feeling letting shapes and textures dominate the image.
Biography
Chip Cooper, was former Director of Photography for the University of Alabama for 33 years and is now Artist in Residence in the Honors College. He received his BA from the University in 1972 followed by post-grad work in photography. While working for the university he was published in Horizon Magazine, Antique Monthly, Antiques & Fine Arts Magazine, Newsweek, Village Voice, USA Today, Modern Maturity, Northeast Orient Magazine, Alabama Heritage, Sophisticated Traveler – The New York Times, Mercedes International, Veranda, and Southern Accents.
Cooper’s photography books include: Hunting the Southern Tradition (Taylor Publishing- Dallas, Texas), Alabama Memories (WH Smith-New York City), Silent in the Land & Common Threads (CKM Press- Tuscaloosa, Alabama), Crimson – The University of Alabama (Booksmith Group Nashville, Tennessee), Charlie Lucas – The Tin Man (University of Alabama Press- Tuscaloosa, Alabama), and Habana Vieja, Old Havana (University of Alabama Press). Cooper won an award of excellence for his book Silent in the Land from Communication Arts Magazine and is a past recipient of an Artist Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. He has shown his work nationally and internationally and his work is in many museums, private and corporate collections.
Recently, South by Southeast Photomagazine featured Cooper’s work in their March/April, July/August, and September/October 2013 magazines.
Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, says about Cooper “you are a very great American photographer plus Georgia O’ Keefe rolled into one. O’Keefe because you have her eye. You paint with film.”
Cooper is currently working with Cuban Photographer, Julio Larramendi on a new book project, The Cuban Peasant due out 2015.
