Bill Cooper's America

Bill Cooper’s photographs present a vision of the city that is uniquely his. Operating, you could say, with the detached eye of a foreigner – Cooper captures private moments in public spaces. Thoughtfully renders them with his camera. Only his camera is a phone – not a late model smart phone either. It’s a phone, of a variety given freely to the needy by a generous act of the Obama administration. An Obamaphone, then, simple, not state of the art. Slow to use. Careful pre-visualization is needed for it proper use.  Private moments in public spaces are all around us – many times too intimate to photograph. The act of raising a camera can disrupt a scene that would otherwise speak to the quality and essence of life and how it is lived today by many. That is what Bill Cooper accomplishes with his pictures.
 
Cooper, a Sixth Street Photography Workshop photographer, is a veteran. “I lived in Taiwan about 2 years , four to six years old and am not nervous around Asian people. They are easier for me to photograph because they see me as a stranger.”