New Book: Celebrating Humanity: Faces from Five Continents Photographs by Ron Cooper
Celebrating Humanity: Faces from Five Continents is one of my favorite books in my extensive photography library. The book presents a collection of beautiful black and white portraits by Colorado based photographer Ron Cooper. Ron travelled the world to make these powerful images, capturing the many faces of humanity. I am honored to have been asked to write the foreword for this superbly produced volume; the essay I present below.
Semana Santa
Photograph by Ron Cooper (Used with Permission)
I have been fortunate to know Ron Cooper for several years now both as a photographer and friend. It has been a privilege to be in the proverbial catbird seat, watching quietly from a distance with fascination and delight as his images changed and evolved—as the veil parted for the artist and the message he was seeking through the lens of his camera found its clarity.
The first photograph of Ron’s that I truly noticed and fell in love with, was an image of a small boy, participating in an Easter Holy Week (Semana Santa) procession in Spain. We see the back of the boy’s capped head. He is standing there within a seeming wall of robed adults, the boy himself in a robe too, holding a small basket, perhaps to carry alms that will be shared. Like the adults he stands among, he too is engaged, watching the procession of believers while the figures of Jesus and Mary pass by, reenacting a centuries old farewell between a mother and her son, as the son is scourged and falls and makes his long way up the hill to the cross and his eventual crucifixion. This image is a powerful moment captured to be sure. When I close my eyes, I can see the expression of despair on the boy’s face and on the faces of those assembled too. While studying this image I become part of this powerful moment, if even vicariously, and it will forever become part of my memory. And as I continue to view this photograph, I am reminded of the beauty of it all. I am reminded too that this is the power of the photograph, that as a viewer I can become part of not only the captured moment, but also too—if only briefly—a part of the life of the person being photographed.
And so it is in magical moments like this one captured, that we begin to discover the beautiful and compelling faces presented in this volume. For there in the light, the photographer captures a revealing glance, an upturned mouth or even a smile if the moment warrants. And while the face may belong to someone perhaps in Havana or Tibet, the picture might be of my next door neighbor—the sweet sweet elder woman living down the road from me, living alone except for her little white dog. For in the many glances and the smiles and the gestures we see in these pictures, we find that while we might live in different places and our worlds may be different, there is much about us that is the same. We respond to the moments in our lives—we smile when we are happy and are saddened when circumstances call and present other expressions on our faces too depending on what a particular moment means to us.
When the photographer makes a portrait, they often wait for the fleeting, yet perfect most revealing moment to release the shutter, when the subject in front of the lens provides a rare glimpse of the true self. It’s more than just trying to capture an interesting face. It is something beautiful realized that aligns with the mind and heart of the photographer and something too that becomes fully expressed in the finished photographic print.
And herein lies the beauty of Ron Cooper’s photographs.
Craig Varjabedian
Santa Fe, New Mexico
2021
Celebrating Humanity: Faces from Five Continents is available from Amazon here.