About

Artist and Photographer

John Hooper is a photographer and artist who started his career shooting for lifestyle magazines. John has shot many intriguing artists, musicians and actors over the last 21 years and his experience as a photographer and director of photography have led him to collaborate on numerous projects and commissions. For “It’s Nice That” with Michael Moloney exploring 24hrs from Pavey Arc in the Lake District to filming Lord Martin Reese answering questions from Palestinian students, to Whisky adverts amongst many others. In 2014 John started Landsounds as a portal for his sound experiments from there he has been using sound for collaborative work with Louise Beer. In January of 2021 John completed a short course in Field Recording : Soundscape Composition to further aid his understanding of this subject.

John is the founder of Landsounds co-director of Pale Blue Dot Collective and a regular contributor to super/collider. He has been using his photography to discover the natural world and cosmos. Not taking the traditional route of many astro photographers John prefers to navigate the heavens using skills honed from years of landscape photography.

Other Projects and interests
Pale Blue Dot Collective was formed in early 2017. It is co-run by Louise Beer and John Hooper
Through exhibitions, performances, screenings and symposiums we endeavour to bring a new perspective about the detrimental impact of climate change, not only us as individuals, our societies but all life and all environments. Framing the impact through the eyes of evolution and the immense time period it has taken for each form of life to arrive at this point, we want to create a space for discussion around the damage we are collectively participating in and its universal impact.

Print Science brings images from the history of astronomy back to life in a series of cards, screen-prints and sculptural framed objects.

John Hooper and Louise Beer combined their love for astronomy with the birth of Print Science in 2016. Having met while working with super/collider*, they began collecting books with lithographs and etchings from the era of astronomy just before photographic technology took over. The images they were finding were accompanying the most poetic texts, no longer seen in the pages of the modern astronomy books. An intrinsic part of their work involves keeping the context between the images and the written words.

Clients:

2022 - Present: Providence Equity, Corporate portraits
2017 - Present: Insight Investment, Headshots, corporate portraiture and content.
2001 - Present: Margaret Howell, Fashion Retail, Look-books, Advertising, ecommerce
2013 - Present: Warner Media, Corporate portraits
2006 - Present: super/collider
2010 - Present: Art & Graft
2013 - Present: BCMH
2017 - Present: Public
2013 - 2017: Bamford, Look-books and Videos

Lumen, Brickwall Films, Ferian, Spectrum,

Awards (including Pale Blue Dot Collective) Commissions and Selected Group Shows

2023
Lom+you Prize
2022
BigCi Environmental Award 2020 (delayed to 2022)
2021
Ramsgate Festival of Sound, Ramsgate, England
Royal Photographic Society/ Science Photographer of the Year, Shortlisted
2020
Arts Council England/ Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) Grant
Bodleian Library Sound Commission
SECCADs Sole Trader Grant
Residency at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora, Aotearoa New Zealand
Arts Council Emergency Response Fund
Sensational Books – Sonic Art Programme - Bodleian Library & Fusion Arts
super/collider x Jenna Lawson : biodiverse/earth, Imperial College London, London, England
20 February - 16 March - Mars and Beyond, Bargehouse, London, England
16 - 22 January - Tender Feelings + Sci-Fi Situations, Softspot, Manchester, England
2019
21 - 24 November - super/collider x Sail Britain: The Fragile Ocean, St John on Bethnal Green, London, England
8 - 28 November - Natural Light, AIR Gallery, Manchester
8 - 10 November - Lumen x Mayes Creative Lizard Point Residency, Lumen Gallery, London, England
15 - 20 October - Through the Looking Glass: Humanity’s Changing View of the Universe, Ugly Duck, London, England
12 October - Bloomsbury Festival: Astronomical Light, St Pancras Crypt Gallery, London, England
03 - 26 October - Lumen x Mayes Creative Lizard Point Residency, Helston Museum, England
01 June - 27 July - Blue Mind - 3rd on 3rd Street, Jamestown, New York, USA
12 May - 09 June - To the Moon and Back: Artists Exploring Outer Space - Mirror Gallery, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Reading, England
01 - 03 March - Bompas and Parr - The Scent of Other Worlds, Lumen Studios, London, England
25 - 27 January - Lumen: Falling Stars / Stelle Cadenti - Lumen Residency 2018 Exhibition, The Crypt Gallery London (St Pancras), London, England
2018
03 - 11 August - Empty Vessels by Scaffold Gallery at Bankley Gallery, Manchester, England
25 - 27 May - Lumen: Cosmic Perspectives, Ugly Duck Gallery, London, England
21 - 23 Jan Lumen Atina Residency Exhibition, The Crypt Gallery, London, England
2017
01 - 07 Dec Lumen, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, England
13 Aug Lumen Residency 2017, Atina, Italy
12 Nov Microscopic Polaroids, The Photographers Gallery, London, England
07 - 09 Jul Bluedot Festival, Jodrell Bank Observatory, England
03 - 05 Feb Lumen: School of Light - Ugly Duck, London, England
2016
25 - 26 Nov La Fine dell’Universo - The Crypt Gallery, London, England
13 Sept Residency Exhibition, Atina, Italy
21 Jun - 7 Jul VOID, Lumen Studios, London, England
26 May Astronomical Light, Stour Space, London, England
2015
13 - 28 Mar Lumen II: Dark from Night, The Belfry, St Johns on Bethnal Green, London, England
2014
17 - 22 Dec Lumen I, Crypt Gallery, London, England
May super/collider, Drop Everything, Sky Henges installation, Inis Oirr, Aran, Eire.
2012
25 Oct - 20 Dec Nous Vous: Canal and River Trust, London England
21 - 23 Nov Crafts Council: Added Value, London England
2011
29 Jul - 10 Aug super/collider: Island/Universe. So Far The Future, London UK
2010
15 - 23 Jan Its Nice That: If You Could Collaborate, London England

Residencies
2022
BigCi Art Environmental Awards 2020, Blue Mountains, Australia
2021
The Margate School: Art, Society, Nature: Photography Residency 2021
2020
Residency at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora, Aotearoa New Zealand
2019
June Self initiated residency in New Zealand with Louise Beer
Lizard Point Residency
2018
Aug Lumen: Atina IV, Atina, Italy
2017
Aug Lumen: Atina III, Atina, Italy
July Lumen: Castel Gandolfo, Italy
2016
Sept - Lumen: Atina II, Atina, Italy
April - Natives, Swaledale, Yorkshire.

Education
1995 - 98 BA(Hons) - Graphic Design - Camberwell College of Art
1993 - 95 Graphic Design - Blackpool and the Fylde College