Thomas Joshua Cooper is a contemporary American photographer known for his serene black-and-white images of landscapes. Influenced by the works of Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, and Paul Strand, Cooper begins his process by choosing a site on a map, researching it, and tracking it down. “I cannot approach the problem of trying to make things without a project in mind,” he once said. “Gratuitous image making is kind of wasteful it strikes me, it’s wasteful because it’s not necessarily effective.” Born on December 19, 1946 in San Francisco, CA, he went on to study at Humboldt State University before receiving his MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico in 1972.  Since 1969, Cooper has used...