Five years ago, as 2007 began, I had five binders full of negatives in a drawer. Around 15,000 frames, and among them some very good pictures. Every time I went to the darkroom, those unprinted images weighed me down. I will never be able to print them all. So I bought a new binder, and told myself that I would work hard, and I would work in the present.
I created this site with the New Topography in mind. This is a narrow scope, and excludes what photography is to many people: a beautiful sunset, a graceful nude, a landscape full of color and light. These are worthy subjects, and capturing them is noble work.
But the landscape I see is more honest than beautiful, and I must be honest in depicting it. I focus on a sense of place, whether it is a railroad crossing, a shooting range, or a gray beach. The places I render have been touched by humanity, and in the scope of my work, ‘place’ extends also to human perspective. A place can be both a physical location, and a vantage point from which one views the world.
After nearly three years, DarkTopo has taken on a life of its own. Started as a simple news feed to update friends and family about my progress as an "emerging artist," my blog has grown steadily in readership and scope, and I'm proud to say that my art and industry analysis and my interviews with renowned photographers have garnered much attention. There's a lot of varied content here, much of it light-hearted, but in spite of the fact that my daily photos and discussions long ago overtook my original artwork in popularity, I remain committed to the vision I sought when I set out.
So, as in any documentary work in the New Topography, there is a lot of darkness here. Sometimes it is actual, sometimes it is only thematic. Many feel that such a depiction of the world, one clouded by the infrastructure and conflicts of man, sacrifices beauty. I believe that if even the darkest of landscapes is rendered honestly, beauty will take care of itself.
For more about the DarkTopo concept, read my interview with the Asheville Citizen-Times, or check out DarkTopo's Greatest Hits.
Max Cooper
Asheville, NC
31 March, 2007--updated 1 December, 2009 |
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