Maine Media faculty member Thatcher Hullerman Cook has collaborated on an ambitious book publishing venture with Obscura, a Maine based nonprofit that supports the arts and arts education through publishing, scholarships, and grants.
Black Apple is the culmination of seven months of photographing in the Ferghana Valley of Kyrgyzstan between October 2007–May 2008. Thatcher lived in a village called Osh, and photographed extensively in the coal mining towns Tash Kymer and Kok Jangak... a name that roughly translates to “black apple.” Thatcher's photographs show a bleak landscape of crumbling infrastructure and personal hardships. 
They also show a people holding onto hope and redemption in the form of the relationships and bonds that tie the culture and the region together. Black Apple is a stunning and moving body of work printed to the highest quality standards of photo book publishing. Thatcher Hullerman Cook is a documentary photographer based in Maine and South Carolina. His clients are primarily humanitarian aid and development organizations that work with refugees and other people affected by war, economic upheaval, and natural disasters. His clients include international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which have sent him on assignment to over sixty countries. Thatcher teaches a workshop in Poetic Storytelling at Maine Media each summer. 
He is also headed to remote northeastern villages in India next week for the destination workshop, Darjeeling Tea Plantation, he is leading with Brendan Bullock.
About The Book
Hardbound, 64 pages with 33 black & white photographs reproduced in duo-tone with varnish on a luxurious paper stock. Beautifully designed by Mat Thorne. Printed and bound in the United States. Published by Obscura Press, www.obscuraweb.org