Cole P. Thompson Sold at Auction Prices

"At 14 years of age, I knew I was destined to be a fine art photographer.While hiking in Rochester, NY I stumbled across the ruin of an old home that George Eastman had once owned. This piqued my interest and I read his biography. I was fascinated with photography and before I had completed the book, before I had even taken a photograph or seen a print develop in the darkroom, I knew that I was going to be a photographer.

For the next 10 years photography was my complete existence, if I wasn’t taking pictures or working in the darkroom, I was reading every book and looking at every image I could find. There was nothing in my life but photography.

I am often asked, “Why black and white?” I think it’s because I grew up in a black-and-white world. Television, movies and the news were all in black and white. My heroes were in black and white and even the nation was segregated into black and white. My images are an extension of the world in which I grew up."

- Cole P. Thompson