Images

Major Works

Essays

Info+Contact

Max Cooper is a photographer based in Asheville, NC. Available for all assignments.
828.367.7196
cooper@darktopography.com
facebook / twitter / flickr / feed
Education
»Bachelor of Arts, Concentration in Photography. The University of NC at Asheville, 2006.

Related Employment
» Staff Photographer, The Mountain Xpress. February 2012 - Present
» Repoter and Photographer, Yancey Common Times Journal. June 2000 - August 2001

Teaching Positions
» Adjunct Instructor of Photography, Southwestern Community College, Fall 2009-Present
» Adjunct Instructor of Photography, Haywood Community College, 2007-2008

Selected Honors and Awards
» BlogAsheville Award for Best Writing and Most Inspirational, for the photoblog “Dark Topography,” 2009
» Honorable Mention, Carolina Clinchfield Historical Railroad Photo Contest, 2009
» BlogAsheville Award for Best Writing, on the photoblog “Dark Topography,” 2009
» Merit Award, Black & White Magazine, 2008
» Ryan Patrick Jones Excellence in Photography Award, 2005, UNCA
» Best in Show: Fourth annual juried Hendersonville Student Arts Competition

Selected Publications
» Mountain Xpress, cover, December, 2011
» Mountain Xpress, cover, December, 2011
» Mountain Xpress, cover, December, 2011
» Mountain Xpress, cover and interior photo essay, November, 2011
» SHOTS Magazine, October, 2011
» F-STop Magazine, April, 2010
» SHOTS Magazine, March, 2010
» Asheville Tribune, cover, March, 2010
» The Jitterbug, March, 2010
» iMag Online Edition, February, 2010
» Black & White Magazine, 2008
» Everywhere Magazine, 2008
» Asheville Tribune, cover, May, 2008
» F-Stop Magazine, January 2008
» FILE Magazine, December 2007
» Asheville Citizen-Times, November, 2007
» Citizen-Times.com, March, July, August, 2007
» Marshall News-Record & Sentinel, March, 2007
» Headwaters Creative Arts Magazine, 2006
» Yancey Common Times-Journal, 2000

Selected Exhibitions
» Asheville: Double Take, Asheville Community Theatre, Asheville, NC. 2010
» AshevilleHDR, The Green Sage, Asheville, NC. 2010
» AshevilleHDR, Pool Gallery, Asheville, NC. 2009
» To See A Darkness, Group Exhibit, Asheville Area Arts Council’s Front Gallery, 2009
» AshevilleHDR, Pool Gallery, Asheville, NC. 2009
» AshevilleHDR, Asheville Regional Airport Gallery, Asheville, NC. 2009
» UNCA Art Alumni Exhibit, Highsmith University Union Gallery, Asheville, NC. 2009
» The District, Solo Exhibit, Pump Gallery, Asheville, NC. 2008
» Castings, Flood Fine Art Center, Asheville, NC. 2008
» Collecting Contemporary, Flood Fine Art Center, Asheville, NC. 2007
» Darkness on the Edge of Town, Solo Exhibit, Wedge Gallery, Asheville, NC. 2006
» Selected Student Artwork, Highsmith University Union Gallery, Asheville, NC. 2006
» Thirty-ninth Annual UNCA Juried Student Exhibition, Asheville, NC. 2006
» UNCA Arts Exhibit, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, Asheville, NC. 2006
» UNCA Student Photography Exhibition, Every-Day Gourmet, Asheville, NC. 2005
» Thirty-eight Annual UNCA Juried Student Exhibition, Asheville, NC. 2005


Works in Selected Collections
» Jolene Mechanic, Curator, Flood Fine Arts Center
» Anne Ponder, Chancellor, University of North Carolina at Asheville

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Pricing and Details

Request a full price sheet.

All packages include a customized, secure online gallery through which prints and other reproductions may be ordered, as well as a disc of web-ready files.

Weddings: Wedding packages begin at $999. For a tailored, specified proposal, drop an email to the above address with your wedding day ideas and desires.

Portraiture: Portrait sessions begin at $299. Sessions can take place at any location. Outdoor sessions may depend on weather.

A Dark Topography

All DarkTopo Posts
Core DarkTopo Images
The First Five Years: 200 Photos on Flickr

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