The American landscape photographer, Thomas Joshua Cooper, is based in Scotland. He is the head of photography at Glasgow School of Art, where he founded the Fine Art Photography department in 1982. He uses an 1898 field large-format camera, to capture single shots of his subjects, later developed in the darkroom. These are then printed in limited selenium-toned gelatin silver print editions, in the manner of Victorian photographers.

Much of his practice takes Cooper to the furthermost edges of continents, mapping the extremities of land. Together with the adventurous, documentary and exploratory nature of his approach, the painterly qualities of his photographs – the softened effect achieved through the long exposures he privileges – place his immersive seascapes within the tradition of the romantic sublime. His ongoing series exploring the meridians starts with this piece, made at Faro Orchillo, Punta Orchillo on the Isle of El Hierro, the westernmost point of the Canary Islands. This was the original site of the 0 degrees Meridian Longitude, the end of the world as designated by the ancient geographer Ptolemy. It is an evocative commentary on both the arbitrariness and fluidity of determining the world’s meridians, which resonates powerfully with the history of Royal Museums Greenwich’s site and collections.