Dennis Cook

Parish Gallery is pleased to present “nature art” photographer, Dennis Cook in an exhibition entitled “B/W Photography”.  This exhibition will open with a reception from 6:00 – 8:00 pm on Friday, July 17^th and will run through August 18, 2009.

Photography is an avocation for Dennis Cook, who has been by profession a Technician editor for the CBS Television Network since 1983.  He has had various editing assignments winning Emmys for his work with “The NFL Today”, also editing promos for the “Evening News with Dan Rather” and show editor for “Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt”.  

He became interested in photography when he was introduced to the 35mm camera by a Vietnam Vet.  He began to master the fundamentals of photography first by independent study and then through formal instruction at the Germaine School of Photography in New York City.  Cook also credits the influences of two intellectual fathers: the “technical expertise of Ansel Adams” and the “artistic and interpretive genius” of Edward Weston. 

“The land never complains or tells me what to shoot,” says Cook, speaking on why he usually chooses western geological phenomena over humans as subjects.  “To me it seems easier to drive 2,000 miles than to ask someone to pose.  People are never happy with themselves.”  Some of his “favorite spots” are superbly documented, primarily in black and white: the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Sand Dunes of Oceano, the rocky coast of Maine, and the Southwestern architecture of New Mexico.

Dennis Cook lives in a changing blue collar community in New Jersey in a turn of the century house.  In addition to photography and travel, his interests include psychology, science fiction, physical fitness pursuits, food preparation, and martial arts.