Background
Cooper, Thomas N. was born on September 15, 1946 in Mare Island, California, United States.
Cooper, Thomas N. was born on September 15, 1946 in Mare Island, California, United States.
University of California at Davis (Bachelor of Arts, 1968). University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law and University of California at Davis (Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, 1973).
He is considered amongst the premier contemporary landscape photographers. Cooper received his bachelor’s degree from Humboldt State University in Arcata, California in 1969. In 1972, he received his master’s in photography from the University of New Mexico.
Cooper was inspired by the works of the photographers of the f/64 group of the 1930s and 1940s, such as Ansel Adams.
Cooper states, "I"ll live and die by the late works of Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand, and I think Robert Frank is the most extraordinary living photographic picture-maker."
Cooper loves being a photographer, but is frustrated by some of the vocabulary that is used in the field He indicates, "I hate the words "snap", "shoot" and "take" when it comes to making photographs.
Everything I do is very seriously built up. They are "made" pictures."
Not only a photographer, Cooper is a poet and has written haiku books
Most of them are inspired by nature and reflect his photography.
He currently resides in Glasgow, Scotland, where he founded the Fine Art Photography Department at the Glasgow School of Art in 1982. He is now a senior researcher in the faculty of Fine Art, holding a Professorial role. He is represented by Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh.
Cooper’s works are held by over fifty museums and public collections, among them:
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Denver Art Museum, Denver Colorado
The Jean Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, Texas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California
Carré d"Art (Nîmes Museum of Contemporary Art), Nîmes, France
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey
The Tate Gallery, London, England
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England.
Member: Sacramento County (Member, Construction Section) and American (Member: Construction Forum Committee. Litigation Section) Bar Associations. The State Bar of California.
Associated General Contractors of California.
American Arbitration Association. Sacramento Builders Exchange.