The TODAY SHOW Australia interviewed the Photographer Cat during the Sunday morning WEEKEND TODAY program. Cooper has had many television appearances, but never one with such a drastic change in timezone.  Fortunately he stayed awake for almost all four minutes.

Our conversation with host Alicia Gorey was fun, and she asked lots of great questions about Cooper, his photo project, and his photo book, CAT CAM.  In case you missed it, watch Cooper’s segment right here!

Host Alicia Gorey chats with Cooper and his humans, Deirdre and Michael Cross.

The Photographer Cat was finally able to relax once we were off the air.

Cooper is currently curled up to the laptop, responding to new fan mail from Australia.

Cooper is no stranger to fame. In fact, when he saw himself in this week’s In Touch Weekly magazine, he simply turned around, curled up and took a nap in the middle of his article.

While we never intended our cat’s photography project to become widely popular, it has been fun over the past two years to follow Cooper in the media. From newspapers to magazines, local television news to Good Morning America, international web sites to People magazine. You make us proud, Cooper!

One of the secrets to Cooper’s success is somewhat obvious. Cooper won’t admit it himself, as he is a little shy. So I’ll come out and say it: Cooper is a handsome devil. He is an artist, and his work speaks for himself. But just like the lead singer in a band, his fame may be somewhat assisted by his natural good looks. Cooper could sell cat food if he really wanted to – maybe as a part-time job. Maybe that would help him pay for that new lens he’s been hinting for. Whether in front or behind the camera, Cooper, you’re doing great things!

People keep asking us what Cooper will be up to next. And it’s hard to tell, as he is truly unpredictable. Again, much like a rockstar. You can’t rope the wind, as they say. But it is possible that Cooper has a project in mind for the next couple months. For those of you thinking about what to get the cat lover on your holiday list I’ll mention that Cooper has been considering publishing a book…

Cooper is currently stretched out on the window sill, with one eye on a fly.

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”.]

Here is a link to the article for those of you who speak and read Spanish:http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1224933.

Cooper is currently curled up against the heater. ¡Gato bueno!

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.

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.

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 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.)

He has been shooting photos for about a year and a half now and we had been publishing them on Flickr. We were astounded when his minor online celebrity ballooned in December with his appearance on Animal Planet’s Cats 101 program and the front page article about Cooper’s photography in the Seattle Post-Intellegencer. Following his big media blitz on December 6th, we have had over 1.5 million hits on our Flickr. Since then Cooper has had a successful gallery exhibit here in Seattle, which was visited by over a thousand people and Cooper even sold a few prints. Clearly there is something about Cooper that strikes a chord with people!

For those of you interested in buying a Cooper Original photo for your home or office, you can visit Urban Light Studios online. View TV news clips about cooper at Cross Films. And you can check out Cooper’s Flickr set featuring 139 pictures by Cooper and of Cooper wearing his Cat Cam.

The above picture is one of my personal all time favorites. We call it “Neighborhood Watch” and it’s available for sale in the gallery store. Cooper has been a busy bee this week and he will have more artistic photos to share with his internet friends soon.

The text reads: “Cooper, the photographer cat, poses at Urban Light Studios in Greenwood, where his owners displayed a collection of photos taken with the automatic camera hanging around his neck.” It was a fun surprise to find Cooper in this magazine. (Click on the picture to see larger)

I believe Cooper took this photo at the gallery; this looks like the inside of the big rolling entrance door.

This is our friend, Shannon Gee, standing in our doorway. Cooper greeted her when she came over with the Seattle Channel crew.

This is looking up from the bottom of the stairs at Urban Light Studios. I love that it looks like dungeon stairs!

Cooper is glad to finally see some spring weather in Seattle this week. The sun provides a harder light that he prefers for higher contrast, he says.

This recent interest from China has bumped Cooper’s Flickr hits to nearly 1.5 million. Thanks, China!

Cooper was out again this week with his collar camera. I love it when his photos look like he’s in the middle of an FTL jump!

This is a really fun angle under a deck. We wish we knew which neighbor this belongs to!

Another wonderful and abstract photo taken by Cooper. This one reminds me of a waterfall. Cooper is now inside and warm, curled up on a pillow by the window. He says he’ll be happy to take more photos when the weather improves. I mean, snow in April? Seriously?