Coopz – Manifesting the life of his dreams one photo at a time

BY SELINA MCCALLUM

In the fall of 2022, extremely talented photographer, Bradley Fenton, also known as Coopz, told his brother Brandon that before the end of the year he was going to go on tour with an artist to take photos. The opportunity wasn’t being offered yet, but he was speaking it into existence.

Coopz is a Toronto-based photographer who grew up in Mississauga. He’s shot at music festivals in the states and in Toronto for a few years. Some of the trailblazing international artists he has photos of are: Coi Leray, Burna Boy, A Boogie with a Hoodie, and Shenseea. He has also taken photos of local trailblazers including DJ Rosegold, WondaGurl, Pressa, and Savannah Re. One of the first photos on his Instagram is of the infamous producer, DJ Khaled, which he took in Miami in 2017.

Coopz recalls when he was asked to go on tour in America with Toronto superstars, Leila Dey and Jessie Reyez for the month of November.

“I got invited to shoot the celebrity basketball game that happened in Toronto in October last year. I was doing all the headshots for all the local celebrities that were invited. I saw Leila Dey’s manager. He came up to me, and said he wanted to talk to me after. I was wondering what was going on. And he’s like, yeah, Leila is about to go on tour, and we want you to come with us and be our photographer and videographer.”

The Mississauga photographer couldn’t believe it.

“Same day I called my brother. I’m like, yo! You’ll never believe what just happened. I just got asked to go on tour. So, I was really excited. I was wandering around. It was unbelievable.”

The Mississauga native has been taking photos since he was in grade nine. He also has a sharp business and creative mind.

“I went to a Catholic school; we had civvies day, days where you get to dress up in your actual clothes. I brought a point and shoot camera to school, and I started taking photos with everyone. They loved them and wanted to post on their Facebook — back then there was no Instagram.

For Christmas that year, my parents bought me my first DSLR camera, and ever since then I’ve been shooting with that Canon T3.  I started taking photos every single day for people and started charging them $10. So, I was doing that in grade nine: shooting, making money, and already making a name for myself back in high school.”

Once Coopz was older, he started to do a lot of club photography, which is what helped him master how to use a flash. However, he didn’t want to be seen as just the club photographer.

“I wanted to get out of being a club photographer, because I felt like that hindered me a lot. When people see you as a photographer, in my opinion, I feel like they only want to book you for club stuff. I obviously wanted to branch out and do more things: personal photography and flying, traveling to different cities to shoot people.”

To overcome this, he decided to rebrand himself.

“I started going and shooting more celebrities in LA and Miami, and being like their personal photographer and eventually I started making a name for myself. I started doing hosting’s, so people will come out and party with me. It wouldn’t be me taking photos in the club, it would be me networking and bringing people with me to the club and doing different events. I just built up my own brand and my own name, where it just holds a different type of weight.”

Coopz name definitely holds a different type of weight as he has travelled across America with the incredibly talented and beautiful R&B singer Leila Dey from Toronto, who was opening up for headliner and superstar from Toronto, Jessie Reyez. It is never a dull moment while on tour as the photographer is always working.

“You don’t have to worry about anything else. You have to worry about making sure Leila looks good. With the photos, get her constant photos, constant videos. You just know what your job is. It’s just constant non-stop. It’s just capturing the moments at the right time.”

Coopz also mentioned that being on tour with Jessie’s team felt like being on the road with one big family.

This year, the talented photographer has jumped into real estate and is being mentored by his brother.

“I just got my first property. That is what I’m going to be doing with my brother. He is going to be helping me buy and sell properties. I’m the youngest of four brothers, and all my brothers are heavily business minded people. I always have someone to look up to and ask questions to keep me learning.”

When he’s not learning something new, he’s manifesting the next huge tour he’ll go on. Some of the artists he’d love to go on tour with are Jack Harlow, Kehlani, Lil Baby, Chris Brown, GloRilla, 50 Cent or Ice Spice.

“I love the touring experience, so I’m itching to go back again,” said Coopz.

Coopz also wanted to thank a good friend of his who has helped him for a long time.

“Shout out to DJ Rosegold because she has been helping me for a while, and always bringing me out and connecting me with people too.”