Cooper is a 4 year old American Shorthair cat living in Seattle. Once a week he wears a lightweight digital camera fastened to his collar, which snaps a new photo every 2 minutes.
Cooper was just featured in an article in La Nacion newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina! This is his first South American press. The author of the article contacted us after visiting Cooper’s Exhibit in Chicago, Illinois (USA) at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
Our friend Maureen is currently living in Argentina and translated the article for us. The article has some nice descriptions of Cooper’s work in the exhibit. Here is an excerpt:
Bright colours, unexpected angles… Cooper’s work takes you by surprise. It is even more astonishing to think that the viewfinder of the camera is not at eye level, but at his chest.
"Fall Colors"
Through April 11 the exhibition Cooper: Photographer Cat is on display at The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, which is funded by the Chicago Academy of Sciences. There are 24 unedited works, such as The Light (La luz) taken from the bottom of a staircase, a disquieting brightness projects from above, a notion that is repeated in Land of Adventure (Tierra de aventura), Fall Colors (Colores de otoño), an exquisite composition of organic geometry in a garden, Sweetness and Light (Dulzura y luz), a luminous abstraction in movement, Small Friends (Pequeños amigos), a different perspective of garden dwarves, New Haircut (Nuevo corte de pelo), an almost cinematographic portrait of a cat underneath a car and the suggestive Risqué (Riesgo) one of his humans in a nightdress, caught off guard in the kitchen in a not-so-discreet shot. [Translation note: The article’s translation of “Risqué” is actually “risk” in Spanish, instead of “atrevido”.]
Just in time for constant reruns of The Christmas Story on TV, Cooper has won some sort of award! It didn’t come in the form of a leg lamp but Cooper has been voted one of Seattle magazine’s Best of 2009!
Seattle magazine considers Cooper the “Best Evidence that Cats are Almost Human” and we couldn’t agree more! They also suggest that “maybe Cooper should collaborate with the Woodland Park Zoo’s artist in residence, the painting orangutans and elephants.” It would be pretty incredible to have Cooper doing his photo journalism with elephants as the subject. However we’re not sure how much he’d like hanging out with them.
Cooper’s adorable face appears on page 93 of the December 2009 issue.
Cooper is currently hanging out on the stairs, taking photos of a spider.
The cat fanatics at LoveMeow.com have schemed up a fun way for Cooper to connect with his fans. They ran an exclusive contest for their readers to win a Cooper Photographer Cat Magnet.
As promised, Cooper personally selected the winners and it has been announced on his YouTube channel (see below). Congratulations to the ten lucky winners! I’m sure you’ll be hearing from LoveMeow very soon.
Here’s the LoveMeow official results page. The people at LoveMeow designed Cooper’s lucky draw so that he could press any key on the keyboard. This slick little program would randomly select the first five winners and then when he pushes another key he selects the remaining five winners. Cooper was a really good sport for the whole thing. And, yes, he does know how to sit on command.
Cooper prepares to select ten winners in the contest.
For those of you who didn’t win this time – you can still get cool Cooper swag in his Gallery Store. We’ve been seeing folks in Seattle wearing Cooper t-shirts (including his cat sitter!) and drinking from sweet Cooper water bottles. Of course, the ultimate way to show your love for this Photographer Cat is to buy one of his exclusive prints. A portion of photo sales from now until April go to PAWS Chicago.
Last week Cooper stayed home with his camera to catch some sunshine while Michael and I headed to Chicago to see the unveiling of his new Cooper: Photographer Cat exhibit at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Cooper’s exhibit will be on display until April 11, 2010 – so if you’re going to be in Chicago between now and then be sure to check it out! And tell them Cooper sent you.
In other fun Cooper news – this week he appeared in the Loyola Phoenix Newspaper in Chicago. Writer, Caitlin Furlong says “An art analyst may feel silly dissecting the pictures taken by a cat, but it’s hard not to find artistic value in this unintentional artist’s photographs.”
We had an exclusive interview with the cat blog, LoveMeow.com where they introduce Cooper as “the amazing cat photographer”. They also attended the opening day of Cooper’s new Chicago Exhibit and posted a great article about it. Blogger, Amy B. says “It was so much more vivid and wonderful seeing them up close. The abstract feel of the photographs, the colors and the lighting seem to be the work out of a highly skilled photographer, but what I am still dumbfounded about is these works of art came from a cat. They put me in a completely different perspective of how it is like to see the world in the eyes of a cat.” LoveMeow will be doing a special Cooper magnet giveaway sometime soon – stay tuned for more details on that!
Wondering what Cooper’s Chicago Exhibit looks like? Here’s a short video of opening weekend at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
Cooper has also recently passed a big milestone on his Facebook page – now boasting more than 4,000 fans! What a fun way to connect with people from all around the world. If you’re not a fan yet – you should be! There’s a link in the right hand column of this page.
Cooper lurks in a neighbor’s rose bushes – perhaps he was worried about the “roses and thorns” reviews of his Chicago exhibit.
Cooper reaches for the last rays of sunshine before the Seattle rain returns for the season.
Cooper is currently curled up and purring on Michael’s lap as they work on a new video. Cooper is trying to influence us to include more “butt-rock” in the music choices. He’s obviously a very confused feline.
Last week we shipped Cooper’s photo exhibit on to it’s next great location. This morning we flew to Chicago for the opening of his new six month exhibit! It takes place at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, in conjunction with the National Geographic Crittercam exhibit.
Last night was a special cocktail reception at the Museum to unveil the new exhibits. It was so great to meet our friends from local no-kill shelters PAWS Chicago and Tree House Cat Shelter. If anyone in the Chicago area is thinking about adopting a cat, these are both wonderful organizations. Cooper is donating a portion of all sales from now until the show closes in April to PAWS Chicago to help spay and neuter other stray cats and find them loving forever homes like his.
The exhibit officially opens this Saturday, September 26th. We are in town for the whole weekend and look forward to meeting Cooper’s fans!
Talk about town has already begun. The buzz about Cooper’s photography is hot! Chicago’s ABC News mentions Cooper in a story yesterday.
Come meet us this weekend at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago!
RSVP on Facebook (and also see updated news spots as we find out about them.)
Today Cooper has his national print debut in People Magazine! Holy jumping up and down kitty cat! That’s big news all right. Read the rest of this entry »
Our cat Cooper appeared in recent publications of Encore Insider, a Seattle arts magazine found at symphonies and theaters. Apparently his collar camera photos are on the must-see list! Read the rest of this entry »
Cooper’s popularity has recently skyrocketed in China! An article about Cooper and his collar camera photography appeared in the Shanghai Morning Post a couple weeks after they interviewed Deirdre. The headline translates to: “Even a Cat Can Have Its Own Exhibition.”
This recent interest from China has bumped Cooper’s Flickr hits to nearly 1.5 million. Thanks, China! Read the rest of this entry »
What a whirlwind the last week has been for Cooper and all of us in his support staff! We took him to the gallery three times for different press events, which got him plenty of cat treats, but I think it’s been as exhausting for him as it is for us. Read the rest of this entry »
Cooper was just featured in an article in La Nacion newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina! This is his first South American press. The author of the article contacted us after visiting Cooper’s Exhibit in Chicago, Illinois (USA) at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
Just in time for constant reruns of The Christmas Story on TV, Cooper has won some sort of award! It didn’t come in the form of a leg lamp but Cooper has been voted one of Seattle magazine’s Best of 2009!
a fun way for Cooper to connect with his fans. They ran an exclusive contest for their readers to win a Cooper Photographer Cat Magnet.
sunshine while Michael and I headed to Chicago to see the unveiling of his new Cooper: Photographer Cat exhibit at the 
Last week we shipped Cooper’s photo exhibit on to it’s next great location. This morning we flew to Chicago for the opening of his new six month exhibit! It takes place at the 
Today Cooper has his national print debut in People Magazine! Holy jumping up and down kitty cat! That’s big news all right.
Our cat Cooper appeared in recent publications of Encore Insider, a Seattle arts magazine found at symphonies and theaters. Apparently his collar camera photos are on the must-see list!
Cooper’s popularity has recently skyrocketed in China! An article about Cooper and his collar camera photography appeared in the Shanghai Morning Post a couple weeks after they interviewed Deirdre. The headline translates to: “Even a Cat Can Have Its Own Exhibition.”
Last night’s opening of Cooper’s photography at Urban Light Studios was a great sucess!