Christine Cook’s Camera USA 2018 image provides connection to her historical and personal past
On view through August 3 at the Naples Art Association is Camera USA 2018. Christine Cook was one of 21 Florida photographers who had work juried into the show.
Titled Black Seminole #2, Cook’s photograph represents a part of Florida history from the early 1900s when African slaves escaped the cotton fields to seek freedom. “In untamed Florida, they encountered Seminole Indians who had discovered how to survive in a bug infested swamp environment,” Cook notes in her artist statement. “Africans and Seminoles shared survival techniques with each other for mutual benefit. Africans taught Seminoles agriculture and Seminoles taught Africans how to dress, eat and survive in a difficult environment.”
Cook was attracted to her subject because of the authentically pained expression he wears on his face. “Within his face, he carries 
our past in art, agriculture, cultural anthropology, environmental change and politics,” Cook relates. “His message is as relevant today as it was long ago.”
In the same way that Cook’s subject provides a connection to our collective historical past, photography provides Christine with an enduring connection to her mother, now long gone. “She celebrated her eight children through photographs that she carried and passed on to us,” says Christine. “She nurtured my art from my first science project 
when I created a pinhole camera using and old Maxwell House coffee can. She loved her coffee.”
Photography also enables Cook to indulge another passion – travel. “I love to travel, photographing people, places and animals using a variety of techniques to preserve the original image while conveying the feeling I had while taking it.”
June 24, 2018.
For more, follow these links:
- Camera USA 2018 on view at Naples Art Association through August 3, 2018
Raleigh photographer Christer Berg wins 2018 National Photography Award- Focus on Camera USA 2018 Merit Award winner Lisette Morales
- Focus on Camera USA 2018 Merit Award winner Constance Brinkley
- Focus on Camera USA 2018 exhibitor Steve Conley
- Focus on Dennis Church’s Camera USA 2018 entry ‘Royal Poinciana Tree’
- For Cape Coral photographer Roy Rodriguez, ‘Memories are Like Reflections’
- Focus on photographer Lance Long’s Camera USA 2018 entry ‘Dust from Dance’
- Brian Malloy’s follow up to last year’s award-winning image is a ‘Knockout’
- Meet Camera USA 2018 judge Christopher Jones
- Meet Camera USA 2018 judge Mark Sloan
- Meet Camera USA 2018 judge Paula Tognarelli
- Camera USA judges sound off on this year’s submissions
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.