Born and raised in Beijing, Cocu Liu has lived in Chicago, Hong Kong, and currently resides in San Francisco. As a product designer at Uber, he designs data-driven maps and crafts data visualization tools for the self-driving car team. A self-described āsmartphone photographer,ā Cocu is fascinated by urban landscapes and believes that āthe best camera is the one thatās with you.ā He started shooting as a teenager with a Canon 35mm from his parents, but shifted to his iPhone in 2012, impressed with its compact size and ease of use.
Cocu uses mobile phones for everything ā shooting, selecting, editing and sharing. As smartphone image capabilities continue to advance, he finds he no longer needs to use other devices in his workflow. He has received numerous awards for his photography, and collaborated with Apple on their "Shot on iPhone 7" global campaign.
Instagram: @cocu_liu
āI love shooting on the streets by myself, walking around the city and looking for whatever draws my attention. The fun part of street photography is that you never know what youāll get before you discover and explore the actual places.ā
Cocuās work is featured in Trope Chicago, the first in the Trope City Editions series, a collection of urban and architectural photography books of cities around the world by todayās emerging photographers; and in Trope Hong Kong, the third volume, celebrating the colorful chaos and architectural order of that iconic, ever-changing city. Cocu is also featured in Above and Across Chicago.
Meet COCU LIU, a mobile photographer and product designer based in the San Francisco Bay area. He was born and raised in BeijingĀ and lived in Hong Kong and Chicago for several years where he took an amazing collection of iPhone images which appear in the book, Trope Chicago.
