2 minute read
PHOTOGRAPH
BY DAVID COOPER
My alarm clock since going into quarantine has been the sound of my one and a half year-old daughter yelling, “DADA, DADA!” through our baby monitor. Each day those words have gotten clearer, more confident and demanding. She is usually up by 6 a.m. She apparently hasn’t gotten the lock down sleeping in memo. I try to get her back to sleep, but I know it’s a done deal. The day has started. Usually everything else after that is a blur. I know making breakfast is involved, and then I sit down in front of my computer to check emails, followed by my zoom staff meeting at 11 a.m., and then assisting my wife with homeschooling our 5-year-old daughter if there is time. Like Groundhog Day, this has been the routine. However, at night I usually sneak into my studio to draw. Months before the quarantine started, I got into the habit of taking pictures with my iPhone that I’d filed away with the intention to draw, this was to create a visual diary of time spent with my parents, my daily commute and time spent with friends.
The quiet time in quarantine helped me to actually get started on this idea. The act of flipping through photographs taken before the world went crazy has been informative, deeply therapeutic, and reflective. The challenge of course is to not just copy the photograph, which would result in a stiff and lifeless drawing. The photograph has become a starting point, a well of information to use at my disposal. I edit in what I need to tell the story and edit out what I don’t. The drawings are often done quickly to keep the energy and spontaneity they might’ve had if they were done on site. So, in the end, the final drawing becomes a representation of a moment and not an exact replication of it. The photograph becomes a means to an end, and hopefully the viewer will trust and believe what they see in the drawing because for them, that will be the only true record of the event.
Subway 2
David Cooper
I’ve also included a drawing of my eldest daughter, based on a photo I took of her while on a walk during the early days of the quarantine. She told me at that moment that she hates the coronavirus and only likes wearing masks on Halloween. I can’t say I disagree with her.
This has been a very strange time in our history. Living through a global pandemic and what I hope is a global racial awakening, while trying to keep up with normal has been challenging to say the least. Days have blended into one another as focus shifts in and out. Those are the moments I flip through my photos filed away on my phone, breathe, and pick up my pen to find my way back to myself.
George Floyd
David Cooper
