Paul Kuiper began his photographic career in 1959 developing prints of the Moon's surface under the direction of astronomer Dr. Gerard P. Kuiper, his father. Dr. Kuiper was preparing a Photographic Lunar Atlas for use in the first manned lunar landing. Paul made B&W enlargements from 8x10 glass negatives of the Moon taken on major telescopes. The work was then published in the NASA/JPL Lunar Atlas. Paul also worked as an astronomer and photographed the Chilean Andes in 1960 and 1961 on the site-testing expedition for Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.
Paul's interest in photography led him to one of the first Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshops in 1965, run by Adams himself. After seriously studying Adams' methods, Paul benefited from a series of technical consultations with him in Adams' home darkroom. In addition, Paul was part of a small group of apprentice photographers who assisted Minor White (of M.I.T.) in three photographic workshops in Boston. He also took a workshop with Paul Caponigro in New Mexico. So, after a decade of high-level training, Paul had mastered the fine art of Black and White Photography by 1970. He has now taught college and adult-level photography for 39 years.
Paul's education also includes languages and literature at the University of Arizona, art history and Spanish in Guadalajara and Santiago, and art history, photography, and film making at U.C.L.A. He helped design the original art curriculum in 1969 at Pima College, Tucson, around the concept of developing perception as it applies to all creative media. He taught Perception and Photography at Pima College as well as at the Tucson Art Center, where one of his students became the president of the University of Arizona and founded the Center for Creative Photography. The Center now owns a complete collection of Ansel Adams' B&W prints as well as a collection of Paul Kuiper's B&W prints.
Paul has shown in galleries in Santa Fe, Toronto, Los Angeles, Tucson, Minneapolis and Hood River. He was Master Photographer at the Minnesota Museum of Art while training apprentices, developing audio-visual programs, designing film series and documenting museum collections. His B&W prints are now part of the museum's permanent collection. Other corporate owners of his large prints are the IDS Corporation, Providence Hospital, and Columbia River Bancorp.
In 1971, Paul traveled to Egypt with the intent of documenting all the major archeological sites along the Nile. He waited six weeks in Cairo for permission to do so. At the end of that time, he received an archeological pass, a press pass and police escorts, which enabled him to spend time at the archeological rest houses in order to thoroughly photograph the temples. Paul took his 4x5 view camera down the length of Egypt, and he carried his 35mm camera too, continuing to apply the discipline of large format work as well as cinematography to his extensive color work.
As one of the pioneers of the audio-visual program format in the 1960's, he has used the genre to develop travel, historic and cultural documentaries that have been funded by the Arizona and Minnesota Historical Societies, Museum of New Mexico, International Folk Art Foundation, Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Oregon Committee for the Humanities. Paul has also photographed in Holland, Rome, Turkey, Mexico and Canada. His programs have been personally shown in seven states and in Holland, Rome, Cairo and Istanbul.
Paul's B&W work has been published in the Minnesota Earth Journal, in textbooks and in the cultural/travel sections of major metropolitan newspapers. His color work has appeared in Newsweek, on many book covers and CDs, in textbooks and various educational media ranging from programs by Moody Institute of Science to those of The Learning Company. His color work on Coptic Egypt is housed in the archives of the Saint Shenuda Coptic Society.