Greg Cooper

Greg Cooper is a faculty member of Brooks Institute and teaches visual journalism full-time. He teaches still photography which includes everything from introduction to photography to introduction to photojournalism and also portfolio and ethics. Greg started his career as a visual journalist over twenty years ago as a daily shooter for newspapers then moved on as a picture editor. His career soon veered towards teaching about seven years ago he came to Brooks Institute to become a faculty member.

Greg’s passion for photography and visual journalism began almost by accident. He traveled a lot as a child but one moment in particular that he remembers was when he and his family were visiting Yosemite Park when he was eleven years old. Greg was amazed at the beautiful landscape and nature that he felt he needed to record it somehow. He had seen a few kids his age taking pictures and at that moment he thought, “Well, if they can do it, so can I”. Soon after that experience, Greg bought his own camera and one month after that; he knew that he wanted to be a photographer when he grew up.

After all these years, Greg still feels passionate about photography. His main motivation to wake up every morning is knowing that he has the opportunity to make a difference in his students’ lives and to teach them what they need to know to make a difference themselves. He also feels grateful when his students understand the concepts he teaches and have success in what they do. One misconception that Greg faces about what he does is that many people think Brooks Institute is only a commercial photography school. What many people don’t know is that in 2000, Jim McNay created the Visual Journalism program to focus on non-fiction photography and stories.

Greg feels his career is very rewarding because he teaches his students something that will help them change the world. One piece of advice that Greg would give for those who want to go on the same career path is to have, “Passion, passion, passion”. Being a photojournalist is about making a difference and it doesn’t matter what path one takes to get there, it just takes that drive to want to tell stories and tell them to the world.