January 27th, 2010

Portraits by Cooper

Cooper is a pretty solitary fellow when he’s out with his camera. He usually sticks to photographing the landscape, trees and plants. Every now and then we get a surprise cameo appearance from a human subject.

Last week Cooper was roaming the neighborhood with his camera and ran into a neighbor, Elaine Thompson, who is a professional photographer here in Seattle. No stranger to Cooper and his work, she shot a photo of him, and he shot a photo of her!  Elaine shoots all sorts of amazing photos and Cooper is pretty jelous of her work with the Seattle Seahawks – isn’t that a type a bird?

“Neighbor Visit” Here is Elaine saying hello to Cooper!

“Dorks” This is one of Cooper’s best known portraits of his humans, Deirdre & Michael.

“Baby Brother” Up close and personal with Cooper’s little sibling, Cameron.

“Garden Girl” Cooper commiserates with a gardener pulling weeds.

“Little Boy Orange” This cute child holds his hand out in friendship to Cooper.

Cooper is currently running around in the yard taking pictures. He wears his camera only once a week, which allows him to simply be a cat the rest of the time.

January 24th, 2010

¡Cooper es Bueno!

Cooper was just featured in an article in La Nacion newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina! This is his first South American press. The author of the article contacted us after visiting Cooper’s Exhibit in Chicago, Illinois (USA) at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

Our friend Maureen is currently living in Argentina and translated the article for us. The article has some nice descriptions of Cooper’s work in the exhibit. Here is an excerpt:

Bright colours, unexpected angles… Cooper’s work takes you by surprise. It is even more astonishing to think that the viewfinder of the camera is not at eye level, but at his chest.

"Fall Colors"

Through April 11 the exhibition Cooper: Photographer Cat is on display at The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, which is funded by the Chicago Academy of Sciences. There are 24 unedited works, such as The Light (La luz) taken from the bottom of a staircase, a disquieting brightness projects from above, a notion that is repeated in Land of Adventure (Tierra de aventura), Fall Colors (Colores de otoño), an exquisite composition of organic geometry in a garden, Sweetness and Light (Dulzura y luz), a luminous abstraction in movement, Small Friends (Pequeños amigos), a different perspective of garden dwarves, New Haircut (Nuevo corte de pelo), an almost cinematographic portrait of a cat underneath a car and the suggestive Risqué (Riesgo) one of his humans in a nightdress, caught off guard in the kitchen in a not-so-discreet shot. [Translation note: The article’s translation of “Risqué” is actually “risk” in Spanish, instead of “atrevido”.]

Here is a link to the article for those of you who speak and read Spanish:http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1224933.

Cooper is currently curled up against the heater. ¡Gato bueno!