Luke Copping

“Hollywood Geisha,” an editorial assignment featuring model Kerry Quaile. Luke's photography has an offbeat intensity and rich texture that makes fabric and skin sumptuous. In creative professions, there's long been a tension between commercial success and artistic freedom. And the field of photography is one of the clearest examples.

When is a photo a work of art? When is it an assignment? And are the two mutually exclusive?

Not for Luke.

“I'm a firm believer that a contemporary photographer needs to straddle the line between commercial aesthetics and making their own statement,” he says.

“I make no distinction between my professional and artistic works, as each style is greatly informed by the other.”

Part of that has to do with the necessity for photographers to be businesspeople as well, as Luke sees it.

“Photographers can no longer be merely technicians,” he says. “They have to be both an artist and a business person.”

LukeCanadian born, Luke is a 2003 graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology who currently lives in Buffalo. He specializes in portraiture and style photography and was recently nominated for Best Photographer for the Artvoice Best of Buffalo 2011 award.

From Luke's “Pigment” series. Model: Aaron Ingrao. Luke's work often brings out a deep luminescence in his subjects' eyes. “Eyes are an important detail in the communication of emotion and expression regardless of how they are or aren't rendered.”He's also president of the Western New York Chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers, or ASMP.

Of his camera work, Luke says he captures people “without looking away.”

“It comes down to seeing beyond my own preconceived notions of what an image should be. There's a certain expectation of images being overly flattering, which I think is not necessarily a requirement these days.”

He believes the most interesting images of people capture their uniqueness—including their flaws.

“That may seem weird coming from someone who is mainly known for style and beauty photography,” Luke says, “But if you look at my Pigment series, I think that stands as a good illustration of my point.”

Luke also finds inspiration in foreign and classic film, which shines through in the dramatic lighting and expressiveness of his work.

“Entangle,” an editorial assignment featuring model Katherine Johnson. “Everyone has their own story and their own interesting details that might be eye-catching or interesting,” Luke says of his photography subjects.Some of the movies he's found most striking are Kurosawa's Ran, Polanski's Chinatown, Fritz Lang's M, G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box, John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, and Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain.