About the Photographer

R.M. Cook Barela was born in Las Cruses, New Mexico, raised in the city dump of Casa Grande, Arizona, worked the labor fields of the San Joaquin Valley, joined the United States Marine Corps, and then the Los Angeles Police Department.

Cook is a man of many talents, and abilities. His artistic gifts have earned him recognition in the press from the time he was 15 years of age, when his first mural was painted on the front window of the Bank of America building, in Casa Grande, Arizona. He sold some of his first photographs to UPI, the Herald Examiner and the Associated Press in the mid 70's, while he worked as a Los Angeles Police Officer. Since then his photographs, have decorated walls of many of his friends homes, and businesses.

Not only a photographer, Cook has published poems and written numerous articles, or short storeies that have appeared in magazines and newspapers all across the nation. His first poems were published in the 1974 edition of "New Voices in American Poetry." Vantage Press, Inc. New York, New York.

Sample Writings

Poems of War

The Gift of a Woman

Short Stories From Life

Since then he has written hundreds of poems on life, love, joy, fear, marriage, death, hunger, pain, sorrow, and war, as well as short stories and some reflections and memoirs of the Vietnam War. Poems of War, The Gift of a Woman, and many of his short stories or slices of life, can be found on the Internet, often collected by othe rpoets or artists.

His book, "Dreams of Glory," based on a diary he kept in Vietnam, will be released on November 10, 2008.

A decorated combat Vietnam veteran, Cook served in the United States Marine Corps from 1966-1970 and then as a police officer, crime analysis investigator and Ordained Chaplain with the Los Angeles Police Department 1971-1992. He has a Master’s degree in Christian Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. Writes and often lectures on issues dealing with Christianity, terrorism, home security, and family life. He has written hundreds of sermons, many of them recorded and only a few he has published. His politics and public service efforts have influence many to become public minded and involved.

Years ago, friends and others began to collect and compile some of his poetic writings, short stories and photographs and have posted them on the Internet. With encouragement and request from his friends and others in late 2006, Cook began to offer some of his photographs on the net called; "The "B" Collection."

Since 1967, following some fierce military battles in Viet Nam, Cook has believed he has lived on borrowed time and since his retirment in, 1992, his motto has been: "Everyday is Saturday."

His most prized work, photographs, poetry and writings, remain close to his heart and will not be sold or revealed, for some time.

©2006 Cook Barela, Esq., & Associates