RESUME KATHARINE COOPER (b. Grahamstown, South Africa)

Katharine Cooper is a South African-born portrait and social documentary photographer whose practice explores identity, belonging, displacement, and minority experiences across Africa and the Middle East. Working primarily in analogue photography with her Hasselblad 500C, Cooper combines documentary observation with carefully composed portraiture, producing images that balance human intimacy with historical testimony.

Her work focuses on communities shaped by political transition, conflict, and migration. Through long-term photographic engagement, Cooper investigates questions of cultural memory, resilience, and representation, often portraying individuals and groups situated at the margins of dominant historical narratives.

Cooper’s visual language merges the traditions of reportage and fine art photography. Rooted in analogue processes and darkroom craftsmanship, her images emphasize texture, atmosphere, and emotional presence rather than immediate journalistic spectacle. Her portraits unfold with restraint and dignity, allowing subjects to emerge through subtle gestures, spatial relationships, and quiet psychological tension.

After growing up in Zimbabwe, Cooper moved to Europe in 1999 to pursue photographic studies in the United Kingdom before continuing her education at the École nationale supérieure de la photographie in Arles, France. Following her graduation with honours in 2004, she worked for a decade as the in-house printer for photographer Lucien Clergue, refining her expertise in analogue printing and exhibition production.

Her internationally recognized series White Africans examined white minority communities in Zimbabwe and South Africa in the aftermath of colonialism and land reform. Subsequent projects documented Yazidi and Christian refugees in Iraq and Syria, Kurdish female fighters in the Peshmerga army, and the reconstruction of Aleppo following the Syrian conflict. Cooper was among the first photographers to document the archaeological site of Palmyra after its liberation in 2016.

Faithful to film photography and traditional darkroom methods, Cooper continues to develop a practice that positions photography as both witness and artistic reflection. Her works are held in private collections internationally, and she is represented by Flatland Gallery in Amsterdam. Katharine Cooper lives and works in Arles, France.