James Cooper

American, born 1952, Torrance, CA. Lives and works, Solvang, CA. Mostly self-taught. Working only with traditional transparency film or print film in 35mm and 645 formats. The finished photograph is the unmanipulated film image. Regularly exhibits work throughout the US and abroad. Reviewers and jurors have noted the work as suggestive of Hiroshi Sugimoto and color field painting

Project Statement

The work ventures to develop a distinctive visual language for capturing agricultural subjects through compositions reduced to simple shapes and geometric structures. The approach emphasizes clear outlines, minimal detail, unexpected viewpoints, and abstract form, reprising the American Precisionist movement. This style draws connections to the photography of Paul Strand and parallels Ellsworth Kelly’s barn photographs from the 1950s through the 1980s, where interlocking forms evoke the planes found in Kelly’s own paintings and sculptures. The visual language attempts to transform rural architecture and agricultural fields into a study of essential form.