You can see a portfolio of Joseph Coope's work here .
A strange thing happens when we set out to take pictures of people. As we photograph, we assume that the person being photographed will pose almost automatically once they position themselves in front of the camera. It is as though doing so gives them a certain authority over how they hope to be represented. This ritual of posing fascinates me. It is a curious phenomenon, a moment suspended in time where everything rests in a state of anticipation before the shutter is released.
At his exhibition last year at the Truman Brewery, Joseph Coope presented his photographs in diptych format based on earlier experiments with alternative methods of image contextualisation. By depicting unrelated objects alongside portraits, the spectators’ conventional understanding of art interpretation is overthrown and instead, they are lead to consider the separate images differently. Introducing such an apparently unconnected element invites the viewer to enter a state of contemplation, triggered by the ambiguous pairing of the images, and in doing so, their own pose begins to imitate and reflect the expressions held by the figures they observe.
Joseph Coope studied photography at Nottingham Trent University where he focused on portraiture and still life. He now lives and works in London.
