COOPER NICHOLSON REA PHOTOGRAPHY
Simply Abstract: There are things we see almost each and every day which if examined in isolation, as entities in their own right, from a particular angle or in a particular light resonate with our senses. That’s what most of the photographs in this collection aim to evoke; that and a heightened awareness of being alive but in an almost timeless, contextless way. Whether it is an image of the rust redness of fallen maple leaves on a rain-sodden sidewalk, the tempera-like quality of an algae-encrusted iron chain in the shallows of a lake, or the intricate multihued weave of the quills on fallen barley, the thrust of these images is to have the viewer come away (after seeing at least one of the photographs) thinking “I kinda knew that but would not have given it as much time with my eye, in my mind – would never have really seen it that way – if not for the image(s) put before me…” Although the photographs taken and shown here are not truly abstract, they have abstract elements in that they attempt to emphasize shapes, colors, forms, textures, structural repeats, and gradations to reveal things that might otherwise not be seen or given much thought.
Philip A. Rea: Born – Wolverhampton, England. Adoptive parents – Allen Arthur Rea and Jose Florence Rea (‘Mum and Dad’). Biological parents – Margaret Joyce Cooper and Duncan Nicholson. Boyhood and adolescence – Leicester, England. Birth name – Anthony Paul Cooper. Adoptive name – Philip A. Rea. Tradename – Cooper Nicholson Rea®. Childhood and adolescent passion – classical trumpet playing. Formal qualifications – BSc (First Class Honors) in Biological Sciences from University of Sussex, UK and DPhil in Plant Biochemistry from University of Oxford, UK. Spouse – Jennifer F. Martin. First child – ‘Ames’. Second child – ‘Ems’. Employment – Research Fellow (University of Oxford, UK), Research Associate (McGill University, Montreal, Canada and University of York, UK), Group Leader (Rothamsted Experimental Station, UK), Assistant, Associate and Full Professor (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA), Rebecka and Arie Belldegrun Distinguished Director (University of Pennsylvania). Publications – more than 100 original papers and commentaries, and two books. Awards – many for fundamental research discoveries in membrane transport and xenobiotic detoxification, and for creativity in science education. Inspiration for first photographs taken – biochemistry mentee, Christopher Griffith. Inspiration for website – Ames and Ems who, like their mother Jenny, are artists in their own right. Self-taught. Aesthetically-driven in all things artistic and scientific.