Interview with Photographer Simon Cook

Simon Cook is not a working professional photographer but rather a talented amateur. His first love is writing (check out his blog - "The art of writing and photography on the web") and he has found a way to combine both passions through his blogging. I have been following Simon for close to a year now and I enjoy his writing as much as I do his photography.

Simon grew up in Wales and emigrated to the U.S. after meeting his wife online (more on that later.) He has since settled in New Jersey and has explored quite a bit of our beautiful state. Through his posts I have "discovered" places that I didn't know about and have added them to my list of places to shoot and I am grateful.

Personal questions

What is your favorite childhood memory?

When I was about 12 my parents were not very well off; my brother and I had no idea, but my parents always felt like they were not giving us enough. One Christmas, we opened our presents on Christmas morning and were very happy. We had dinner and then my parents surprised us with an additional gift of a huge cassette player (yes I am that old!). It was the greatest memory of my childhood. It became an even better memory when 30 years later I found out my parents had spent their last money the day before just to make our Christmas special.
(Joe: that's a great memory - you think you're old, my first tape recorder was a portable reel-to-reel!)

What are the five foods you can’t live without?

Does Guinness count as a food?
Let’s see:

• Steak – need I say more? Somehow steak, smothered in garlic mushrooms with a nice loaded baked potato is something to die for – it would be my last meal if I was on death row.
• Tiramisu – decadent, creamy, rum filled, coffee topped joyous piece of dessert!
• Fish and Chips – my dad was born in Grimsby which at the time was a thriving port. The fish and chips were as fresh as fresh could be – add some mushy peas and I am in heaven.
• Curry – well on those days when I went out for a beer or ten with the lads in Wales I could always blame the curry in the morning for the hangover!
• Lasagna – but only the way my wife makes it. Mozzarella, ragout cheese and chopped meat – and enough to feed an army.

What’s the best advice anyone has given you and who gave it to you?

I met my wife on the internet – she lived in the USA and I lived in Wales, UK. I went out with my dad once I had made the decision to move to the US to tell him – I was expecting a lecture. However he surprised me and basically said that sometimes in life you have to ‘jump’, otherwise you’ll regret not jumping. I jumped – and 20 years later I’m still happily married.
(Joe: great advice and welcome to our side of the Pond!)

What is your favorite thing to do when you aren't shooting?

As you’ll see when I answer the photography questions, my first ‘pleasure’ is writing – so when I’m not shooting I’m either writing or reading. I love learning and part of that process for me also involves writing.

If you could spend an hour with any famous person, past or present, who would it be and why?

Stephen Hawking – not only is he a genius, but he is also very funny. To achieve so much while be extremely disabled is astonishing. I’d love to spend just a few minutes in his presence – to try and even understand how he communicates, how he thinks, how he feels would be very profound to me.
(Joe: very interesting choice. I think it would be fascinating, too.)

Professional questions

Why blog about photography?

I am an amateur writer who loves expressing himself in words; as I’ve grown as a writer I stumbled across photography (mostly thanks to my dad). What intrigues me about photography is that it allows me to see the world from a slightly different perspective and it also allows me to amend the reality I am seeing; the blogging process for me therefore becomes in exercise in being more creative in my writing, but also I am finding that the thought process involved in combining writing and photography seem to help me improve at both.

Can you explain your photography in 10 words or less?

Eclectic mix of reality and fantasy experimenting with perspective and texture.

What is your greatest achievement in photography or blogging?

I won a grand prize in a competition on Hubpages – although I would not consider that blogging! In reality, my best achievement is having a school class ask my permission to use part of one of my blogs in a school play. It was a tongue in cheek article looking at what you would do if the world ended (it was written ready for December 21, 2012) – it was a humbling experiences knowing that children read my work, but also appreciated it enough to include in a play.
(Joe: I read that article - quite funny!)

If you could interview any photographer for your blog, past or present, who would it be?

Without a doubt Annie Leibovitz; I love music and was lucky enough to visit the Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland when her work on famous portraits of rock stars was there. Her photographs were amazing; they were raw – you didn’t see the rock star as you see them on stage but you saw their souls – it was almost as if they were nude.
(Joe: she is one of my idols. I would have loved to see her work "live" and hope I can get an interview with her for this blog.)

What comes first - the blog or the photography and what’s your favorite part about the process?

The photograph always comes first for me, although I would like to be able to come up with a theme and then write about the photographs later. I enjoy the process of trying to get a different perspective in my pictures and then explain why I wanted that perspective.

Bonus question:

What are your Top 5 "Deserted Island" albums?

• Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)
• 2112 (Rush)
• The White Album (The Beatles)
• Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin)
• Tapestry (Carole King)

To learn more about Simon and to read his posts, please check out his profile at https://niume.com/profile/100576#!/posts. I would also like to suggest you read Love's Road by Simon Cook and bookmark it.