Cole Thompson

Cole Thompson’s goal is simple, to produce fine art photography in black and white.  As a teenager, Cole Thompson would spend hours looking at photos of the great masters of photography. While over the years Cole Thompson has broadened his subject matter, he has never abandoned those photographic ethics that he developed as a youth.  In 2004 Cole Thompson took the radical step of converting to digital and had to wrestle with new ethical questions that arose from the advances in technology.  At the time, digital was not considered appropriate for fine art black and white photography.  And yet, almost all of the Cole Thompson photographsare digital, captured and printed digitally and now you have possiblity to decide if Cole Thompson has maintained that classic tradition. 

At 14 years of age, Cole Thompson knew that he was destined to be a fine art photographer. While living in Rochester, NY, He stumbled across an old building associated with George Eastman, which led to reading of his biography. Before even completed the book, He knew that going to be a photographer and for the next 10 years, photography was his complete existence. If He wasn’t taking pictures or in the darkroom, Cole would spend countless hours looking at every book and image he could find. There was nothing in his  life except photography. Even at this early age Cole found himself drawn to a particular style of image, one that would literally cause a physical reaction in me. They were dark images created by Adams, Weston, Bullock and others. They shaped Cole Thompson’s vision of what photography was and what he wanted to do.

Cole Thompson often asked, “Why black and white?” probably it’s because he grew up in a black-and-white world. Television, movies and the news were all in black and white. His heroes were in black and white and even the nation was segregated into black and white.  Cole Thompson’s images are an extension of the world in which He grew up. For him  color records the image, but black and white captures the feelings that lie beneath the surface.

Cole Thompson’s portfolio:

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Official site: www.colethompsonphotography.com