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James Cook

@jamescook.biz
965 followers 639 following 337 posts

Camera-carrying observer of the world and longtime freelance photojournalist, responding to what circumstances present. catchingshadows.substack.com Slideshows & Archival Prints: JamesCook.biz TraditionalSubjects.com

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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 26/09/2026
Lighting Votive candles in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. © James Cook #BlueSkyArtShow #Religion #Vienna #ViennaNow #Austria #Lights
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 26/09/2026
Neon signage for The Whip at Lakeside Amusement Park, Denver, Colorado. The Whip was built in 1914. © James Cook #BlueSkyArtShow #Lights
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 26/09/2026
Tailights on a 1962 Cadillac. © James Cook #Abstract #Design #Graphic #BlueSkyArtShow #Lights #Photography #Kodachrome #Color #Colorful #ClassicCars #Cadillac
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 19/09/2026
The #Golden ceiling in the Kunsthistorisches Art Museum, Vienna Austria © James Cook #Perspective #SensoryArt #Architecture #Graphic #Travel #Austria #Vienna #ViennaNow #BlueSkyArtShow #Golden
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 19/09/2026
The Rathaus (city hall) of Kufstein, Austria takes on a #Golden hue in the evening sun. © James Cook #Architecture #Austria #Windows #Perspective #SensoryArt #BlueSkyArtshow #Golden
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 19/09/2026
At the exteme of it's reach, the last gasp of a wave laps against the sand and reflects the sunset. Lake Michigan, Oval Beech, Saugatuck, Michigan © James Cook #Abstract #LakeMichigan #Landscapes #Photography #BlueSkyArtShow #Golden
A serene beach scene at Oval Beach with gentle waves lapping against the sand, reflecting a golden glow from the setting sun on the water droplets and grains of sand.
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 12/09/2026
#Undulating wave tracks create a 3D optical illusion of shadows, on the beach at Varkasaig beach, Isle of Skye, Scotland © James Cook #Abstract #Landscape #Landscapes #Photography #BlueSkyArtShow #Pattern #Travel #Scotland
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 12/09/2026
The #Undulating rooftop of St. Peter's Cathedral, Vienna © James Cook #BlueSkyArtshow #Architecture #Austria #Travel
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 12/09/2026
If ever a road could be said to be #Undulating, it's the Trollstigen Road (Troll Ladder). It traverses eleven times around hairpin turns. Åndalsnes, Norway © James Cook #BlueSkyArtShow #Landscapes #Travel #Mountains #Norway #Scandinavia #Tourism
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 12/09/2026
On a still Summer evening, broad, undulating waves on Lake Michigan were #Alternating between complimentary colors of the sky above and deep water below. As far as the eye could see gulls dotted the water.. © James Cook #LakeMichigan #Michigan #GreatLakes #BlueSkyArtShow #Peaceful #Sunlight
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 03/09/2026
Darlene See was chosen to weave the way the tradition has always chosen its weavers: an elder pointed, and said, "She's the one." I photographed her at Hoonah, Alaska, at work on a robe, thread by thread. #NativeAmerican #Tlingit #Chilkat #Indigenous #Alaska
catchingshadows.substack.com
She's the One
Reviving the nearly lost art of Chilkat weaving on the Alaska coast.
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 26/08/2026
Nothing is sacred under Trump if money can be made. #Trump #Environment #NativeAmerican #IndigeonousPeople #BearEars #ChacoCanyon
currentaffairs.org
Trump’s Land Grab is the Latest Chapter of Indigenous Cultural Genocide
The assault on Chaco Canyon, Bears Ears, and other sacred lands is a blatant continuation of America’s centuries-long campaign against Native people.
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 01/08/2026
With a downtown of 600 buildings, all built within six years, Sundsvall is an architectural treasure trove. A real sleeper on the tourist circuits. #Sweden #Sundsvall #Architecture #Europe #Travel
open.substack.com
Fire and Stone
Sundsvall, Sweden: The City Built from Fire. In 1888, it burned to the ground. Six years later: 600 stone buildings across 51 blocks, and a new city.
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 05/07/2026
In 1988, I wrote about Walter Littlemoon for Newsweek's Unsung Heroes feature. This month, a recent letter to him came back — he had died while it was in the mail. He set me on a path 40 years ago I'm still walking. #WoundedKnee #Lakota #NativeAmerican #Newsweek
open.substack.com
An Unsung Hero
They Called Him Uncivilized. Walter Littlemoon set me on a path forty years ago. This is his story, and mine, as we both mark this Fourth of July differently than planned.
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 03/07/2026
As we celebrate 250 years of this nation, independence and democracy, we can be proud of many great achievements. It's also important to recognize that it hasn't always been via the high road. We have our blemishes, and they should be acknowledged. #NativeAmerican #IndigenousPeople #250th #History
ictnews.org
AMERICA 250: A step-by-step guide to Indigenous erasure - ICT
The missing and crucial truths not in America’s history books that redefined tribal nations and Native peoples 250 years after the country’s founding
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 11/06/2026
Some doors don't open to force. A new post on photographing at Tesuque Pueblo, where I first arrived empty-handed and left, years later, with portraits I cherish. #NativeAmerican #Pueblo #TraditionalSubjects #Photojournalism
open.substack.com
An Empty-Handed Approach
Some doors don't open to force
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 05/05/2026
In July 2021, I met 94-year-old Claudia Spicer dancing in competitions at a pow wow. This is the story of the former trapeze artist, opera student, first crowned princess of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, and an extra in Cecil B. DeMille films. #NativeAmerican #OtoeMissouria #Photojournalism #PowWow
open.substack.com
From the Trapeze to the Pow Wow Arena
A 94-year-old dancer, a circus childhood, and the long survival of the Otoe-Missouria
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 02/05/2026
Shadows at Play, Death Valley, California © James Cook #Landscape #Landscapes #Photography #Graphic #BlueMonday #BlueSkyArtShow #ShadowPlay
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 19/04/2026
A nine-hundred-year-old stave church, and still locked up every evening with the same key. An intentional destination, a challenging journey, and an unexpected experience. #Norway #VisitNorway #Sognefjord #StaveChurch #HiddenNorway #Hopperstad
open.substack.com
Off the Map
The journey to a remote, medieval stave church and the caretaker who brought it alive.
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 04/04/2026
At an abandoned vineyard, a farmhouse window left ajar becomes the opening through which the once-tended grapevines take hold, making themselves the new masters of the house. Fennville, Michigan. © James Cook #Photography #Abandoned #BlueSkyArtShow #Michigan #Openings
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 04/04/2026
Pauper, prince, poet, or priest, the skeletal remains of Parisians past intermingle in the Paris Catacombs. Openings where eyes once welcomed the world now hold only shadow. © James Cook #Photography #Photojournalism #Photojournalist #Abstract #Openings
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 04/04/2026
Holes in Security. Dublin, Ireland © James Cook #Openings #BlueSkyArtShow #Colorful #Abstract #Graphic
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 03/04/2026
For generations, the Skokomish people of Hood Canal were forbidden from speaking their language, practicing their ceremonies, telling their stories. One man decided that ended with him. #NativeAmerican #Skokomish #TraditionalSubjects #Photojournalism
open.substack.com
Subiyay, Not the Last Tree
On the Skokomish Reservation, one man spent a lifetime refusing to let his culture disappear
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 14/03/2026
Three Sisters of Glencoe, Glencoe National Nature Reserve, Scotland. June 2020 © James Cook #iPhone #Panorama #Environment #Landscape #Photography #Scotland #Highlands #Mountains #BlueSkyArtShow #Horizontal
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 14/03/2026
A golfer lines up his put on the Clearbrook Golf Course, Saugatuck, Michigan © James Cook #Color #Sports #Golf #Green #BlueSkyArtShow #Horizontal
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 14/03/2026
A pre-dawn view across ice ridges on Lake Michigan in January 2010. The lake is an ever changing palette of sky over water: O2/H2O. © James Cook #Michigan #LakeMichigan #Photography #Landscapes #BlueMonday #BlueSkyArtShow #Horizontal
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 12/03/2026
In 1966, as a sixteen-year-old with $100 and a skeptical eye, I drove off a used car lot in a yellow Studebaker. It turned out to be the best lesson I ever bought. #Studebaker #Cars
open.substack.com
But Dad, It’s a Studebaker!
My first car taught me not to worry about fitting in
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 05/03/2026
Potawatomi and other Anishinaabe peoples have lived in the Great Lakes region since time immemorial. They are still here. #NativeAmerican #Photojournalism #Potawatomi #Anishinaabe #Michigan
open.substack.com
Still Here
Potawatomi and Ojibwe tradition on the shores of Lake Michigan
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 28/02/2026
Another #Round of graduating cadets, at the US Airforce Academy, take an oath to the Constitution. Moments later they gave photographers an opportunity to make the iconic image of their hats tossed into the air. © James Cook #Abstract #Graphic #Photography #Pattern #BlueSkyArtShow #Round
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 28/02/2026
Ceiling in the Kunsthistorisches Art Museum, Vienna Austria © James Cook #Perspective #SensoryArt #Architecture #Graphic #Travel #Austria #Vienna #ViennaNow #BlueSkyArtShow #Round
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 24/02/2026
A chief's redcoat, a diplomatic gift from the War of 1812 era, still exists in the Great Lakes region. Behind it is a story of Ojibwe strategy, treaty fights, and a ninety-year-old chief who canoed to Washington to stop his people's removal. ©James Cook #NativeAmerican #Photojournalism #Ojibwe
open.substack.com
The Redcoat
A chief's coat, and the Ojibwe endurance in the Great Lakes
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 21/02/2026
Two buildings, two eras. 1972 Transamerica Pyramid and 1907 Sentinel, San Francisco, 1995 © James Cook #Architecture #Cityscape #DocumentaryPhotography #PhotoDocumentary #Photojournalism #Photojournalist #Two #BlueSkyArtShow
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 21/02/2026
Two dancers. A Lakota grass dancer follows a traditional Lakota dancer across a ridge at Red Rocks Park in Colorado. 1990 - See Alt © James Cook #NativeAmerican #Dance #Dancing #Tradition #Photography #PhotoDocumentary #Photojournalism #Photojournalist #BlueSkyArtShow #Two
A Lakota grass dancer follows a traditional Lakota dancer across a ridge. The grass dance evolved from when men tucked long grasses into their belts to today's colorful outfits, covered with long flows of brightly colored cloth fringe. The traditional dance is one of the oldest dances of the Northern plains. The outfit typically consists of a coup stick, eagle feathers, furs, porcupine quills, beads and bells and pieces handed down over generations.
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 21/02/2026
Two awesome faces. Chief Fools Crow and Kate at a powwow at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. July 1984 - See Alt © James Cook #NativeAmerican #Photography #Photojournalism #WoundedKnee #Photojournalist #BlueSkyArtShow #Two
Frank Fools Crow (June 1890 - November 27, 1989) was a Lakota Sioux spiritual leader, Yuwipi medicine man, and the nephew of Black Elk. Raised in the traditional way, he did not attend "the white man's school" as his father did not approve, which is why he could not speak fluent English. As a young man he traveled around the United States with the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Show. He spent much of his life serving his people as a medicine man, healer, and teacher.
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 21/02/2026
Two divers, two styles. Jumpers - from a bridge in the Florida Keys © James Cook #Photography #Photojournalist #Kodachrome #Photojournalism #BlueSkyArtShow #Two
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 14/02/2026
An old tractor sits inside a deteriorating, old barn, both aging beyond their useful years.. Port Oneida, Michigan © James Cook #Photography #Abandoned #BlueSkyArtShow #Michigan #Agriculture #Wood
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 14/02/2026
Wood - cut, shaped, painted, cast-off, weathered. Three Sisters, Isle of Mull. Once someone's pride, three fishing boats endure a slow demolition by the daily tides near Salen, Isle of Mull, Scotland © James Cook #Photography #Scotland #Mull #IsleofMull #Wood #BlueSkyArtShow
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 11/02/2026
A new post to Catching Shadows about ice on Lake Michigan, especially over the years. #Winter #LakeMichigan #GreatLakes #ClimateChange
catchingshadows.substack.com
Winter’s Sculpting of Lake Michigan
Wind, Waves, and Ice. Each winter, Lake Michigan is sculpted by wind, cold, and repetition. Ice forms, breaks, piles, and freezes again, creating a shifting record of storms and stillness along the Mi...
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 07/02/2026
Endless sunlight. 1:02 AM, Summer Solstice in Sundsvall, Sweden © James Cook #Architecture #BlueSkyArtShow #Sunlight
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 07/02/2026
On a still Summer evening, broad, undulating waves on Lake Michigan were #Alternating between complimentary colors of the sky above and deep water below. As far as the eye could see gulls dotted the water.. © James Cook #LakeMichigan #Michigan #GreatLakes #BlueSkyArtShow #Peaceful #Sunlight
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 04/02/2026
From the Moon to Mars, Buzz Aldrin never stopped thinking about what came next. I watched him walk on the Moon in 1969, then sat across from him at lunch on the eighteenth anniversary of that day while covering a Mars conference. One small artifact from that lunch remains my souvenir from space.
open.substack.com
Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut
From the Moon to Mars
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 02/02/2026
I was invited into Anthony Quinn’s dressing room for a photo session, and promptly thrown out. Again and again. Each time I was allowed back inside, he showed me something different, revealing the focus, discipline, and devotion behind an iconic role. #Photojournalism #Photojournalist #AnthonyQuinn
open.substack.com
Summoning Zorba
Anthony Quinn on His Own Terms
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 01/02/2026
I photographed Henry Fonda at an awards ceremony in 1980, expecting formality and finding something far more human. I encountered a man moved by recognition, generous with his time, and quietly disarming. #Photojournalism #Photojournalist #Fonda
open.substack.com
Henry Fonda, a National Treasure
"I like fudge."
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 31/01/2026
I'm pleased to share a piece about Chuck Fishman, one of my college classmates. #photojournalist #photography #Poland
youtu.be
Chuck Fishman: Capturing Polish Jewry
YouTube video by Culture.pl
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 31/01/2026
A classic example of mammatus clouds, their sculpted forms revealing the turbulence left behind by a powerful storm. © James Cook #Clouds #BlueSkyArtShow #Weather
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 31/01/2026
Sunset behind a sand dune. Saugatuck Dunes, Michigan © James Cook #LakeMichigan #Landscape #Landscapes #Michigan #SaugatuckDunes #Clouds #BlueSkyArtshow
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 31/01/2026
Sunrise over San Francisco from Treasure Island, 1989 © James Cook #Skylines #DocumentaryPhotography #Landscape #Architecture #Photography #Kodachrome #Clouds #BlueSkyArtShow
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 17/01/2026
Alone in a crowd Trafalgar Square, London #Abstract #Photography #BlueSkyArtShow #One
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 08/01/2026
My latest post to Catching Shadows on Substack #DocumentaryPhotography #NativeAmerican #PhotoDocumentary #Photojournalism #Photojournalist #WoundedKnee
open.substack.com
The Photograph That Waited Thirty Years
Sometimes the camera captures more than expected.
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James Cook @jamescook.biz · 04/01/2026
Korean War veteran, Olympic athlete, motorcycle rider, master jewelry artist, Senator. Ben Nighthorse Campbell defied easy categories and left a lasting mark on conservation, Native American history, and the American West. Remembering a good man. #Politics #NativeAmerican #BenNighthorseCampbell
open.substack.com
Ben Nighthorse Campbell (1933–2025)
A life of service, craft, and conviction
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