Three Perspectives on Photography - Thomas Joshua Cooper

Three Perspectives on Photography

Atonements – Photographs 1976 – 1979

A meditation on meaning within my own work.  -  Thomas Joshua Cooper.

“I am fascinated by, and drawn towards aspects of ritual and ceremony as they, in their most pristine forms, indicate areas and awarenesses of human activity that I prefer to call sacred.  It is around such ‘ritual areas’, which abound in Britain, that both the conceptual ad the formal basis of my work occurs.”

Thomas Cooper describes how he feels at home in the environments that he classes as ritualistic.  These locations are often the remains of quarrying, mining or forestry.  When I work in similar locations I must admit to also feeling a sense of belonging, of feeling at home.  Is this a link to the past, or maybe a sense or harmony existing within these now deserted and dilapidated structures?  The once quite dangerous and hazardous environments are now softened by time, elements and nature.  Possibly this softening of the harshness makes the locations more inviting.  The resonances of past industry are present in every aspect of the vista, from hand hewn rocks to crumbling buildings, from rusting steel ware to tramways invaded by bracken.  John Blakemore talked about the spirit of the place, Cooper discusses working towards the ‘Myth of Recollection’.  The two are probably one and the same, the link that you form with the past through the environment.

Both Blakemore and Cooper acknowledge that the process is a contemplative one, being ‘indrawn and introspective’.  I was once encouraged by John Blakemore to meditate before shooting, Cooper describes his approach as reflective and medative, both I believe are primarily slowing down and allowing the full experience of the location to enter the creative process.  The sounds, smells and atmospheric conditions all influence how we interpret the scene before our lens.  We take these remnants of rituals and use them to develop our own ritual, the creation of our images.  Once captured on light sensitive devices, digital or film, we then add to our interpretation by adjusting the palette, tuning the contrast.  Once this vision is formulated we then choose paper, surfaces, inks, developers, all of which further remove the image from the record of the subject.  The process is no longer a chemical reaction producing a visible image, but is now a product and creation of an emotional response to an unnatural environment, incorporating the influences on our emotional condition. 

“It is the lyric stance that marks me deeply as it comes from the Heart.  Revelation becomes the creative source.  For me, photography must always be a function and process of Heart.”