About
Photograph by Louise Beer
Artist and Photographer
John Hooper is a photographer and sound artist whose practice bridges editorial portraiture, fashion, and environmental art. He studied Graphic Design at Blackpool College of Art and Design (1993–1995) before completing a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Art (1995–1998).
After graduating, John established himself as a commercial photographer, contributing to lifestyle magazines and major publications such as Sleaze Nation, Intersection, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and The Wire. His portrait work has featured figures including Stephen Fry, Richard E. Grant, Fiona Banner, Gordon Ramsay, and Ross Lovegrove, as well as musicians such as Wilco, The Kills, Kings of Leon, Ludacris, Clint Mansell, and Marshall Allen.
Beyond editorial assignments, John has produced visual content for fashion brands including Margaret Howell, Bamford, and a number of emerging designers. His artistic practice extends into landscape photography, film, and soundscape composition, where he explores themes of environmental change, human connection to the natural world, and cosmic perspectives.
In recent years, John has been expanding his commercial practice to include creative headshots for CNN, Art and Graft, Providence Equity Partners, and Insight Investment, amongst others. He has also developed a strong architectural photography practice, working with architect Anna Page, planners tor&co, and through commissions with Public London.
John is the founder of Landsounds and co-founder of Pale Blue Dot Collective with artist Louise Beer, a collaborative platform using photography, film, and sound to examine climate change and our relationship with the planet and the universe.
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 and Residencies (including Pale Blue Dot Collective) Commissions and Selected Group Shows
2025
30 March - 21st April - Beyond Measure - Expanding the Sky, CMAG Canberra, Australia.
2024
Sidney Nolan Residency Prize, Earth Photo 2024, Wales
2023
A Siren’s Call with Art on Romney Marsh, Kent, England
Lom+you Prize
2022
BigCi Environmental Award 2020 (delayed to 2022)
BigCi Art Environmental Awards 2020, Blue Mountains, Australia
2021
The Margate School: Art, Society, Nature: Photography Residency 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
06 - 16 June Self initiated residency in New Zealand with Louise Beer
Lizard Point Residency
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
August - Lumen: Atina IV, Atina, Italy
25 - 27 May - Lumen: Cosmic Perspectives, Ugly Duck Gallery, London, England
21 - 23 January - Lumen Atina Residency Exhibition, The Crypt Gallery, London, England
2017
01 - 07 Dec Lumen, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, England
12 November Microscopic Polaroids, The Photographers Gallery, London, England
13 August Lumen Residency 2017, Atina, Italy
July - Lumen: Castel Gandolfo, Italy
07 - 09 July Bluedot Festival, Jodrell Bank Observatory, England
03 - 05 February Lumen: School of Light - Ugly Duck, London, England
2016
25 - 26 November - La Fine dell’Universo - The Crypt Gallery, London, England
13 Sept - Residency Exhibition, Atina, Italy
September - Lumen: Atina residnecy, Atina, Italy
21 Jun - 7 July - VOID, Lumen Studios, London, England
26 May - Astronomical Light, Stour Space, London, England
April - Natives, Swaledale, Yorkshire.
2015
13 - 28 Mar - Lumen II: Dark from Night, The Belfry, St Johns on Bethnal Green, London, England
2014
17 - 22 December - Lumen I, Crypt Gallery, London, England
May - super/collider - Drop Everything, Sky Henges installation, Inis Oirr, Aran, Eire.
2012
25 Oct - 20 December - Nous Vous: Canal and River Trust, London England
21 - 23 November - Crafts Council: Added Value, London England
2011
29 Jul - 10 August - super/collider: Island/Universe. So Far The Future, London UK
2010
15 - 23 January - Its Nice That: If You Could Collaborate, London England
Education
1995 - 98 BA(Hons) - Graphic Design - Camberwell College of Art
1993 - 95 Graphic Design - Blackpool and the Fylde College