Thomas Hoepker biography

Thomas Hoepker is a German photographer who was born on the 10^th June 1936 in Munich, Germany. He worked for a company called Magnum Photos and used to take photographs for the company. Before joining the company, he used to take photographs from the age of 16 and used to sell them in order to finance his education. While in school, he studied art history and archaeology, then worked as a photographer for Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall between 1960 and 1963, reporting from all over the world. He then worked as cameraman and producer of documentary films for German television in 1972, and from 1974 collaborated with his wife, the journalist Eva Windmoeller, first in East Germany and then in New York, where they moved to work as correspondents for Stern in 1976. From 1978 to 1981 Hoepker was director of photography for the American edition of Geo. He joined Stern magazine as a photo-reporter in 1964. Hoepker worked as art director for Stern magazine in Hamburg between 1987 and 1989, when he became a full member of Magnum. Specializing in reportage and stylish colour features, he received the prestigious Kulturpreis of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie in 1968. Among many other awards for his work, he received one in 1999 from the German Ministry of Foreign Aid for Death in a Cornfield, a TV film on Guatemala. Today Hoepker lives in New York. 

He shoots and produces TV documentaries together with his second wife Christine Kruchen. He was president of Magnum Photos from 2003 to 2006. A retrospective exhibition, showing 230 images from fifty years of work, toured Germany and other parts of Europe in 2007. I think one his most common photograph would have to be his 9/11photograph that caused a lot of controversy when it was released to the public. Judging from some of the photographs I have seen by him.

 I have to say his work is indeed colourful and as well show different lifestyles lived by different sorts of people all over the world. I think his other piece of work that is very popular is the set of photos he took of the great Muhammad Ali, who was a great boxer during his time. At the moment he has book called ‘New York’ where he vividly captures the city’s complex spirit in all its many moods while documenting the most recent fifty-plus years of the city’s history. The images from this book range from the early 60s through 9/11, and up to the very present including the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. In this book he also documents a true New York with its diverse inhabitants and the allure of its prominent landmarks and hidden, far-flung corners and conveys a vivid sense of the city’s physical landscape and intricate urban culture. Sincerely speaking I think Thomas Hoepker is not the best photographer whose work I have seen before but I have to say he is good at what he does and he is also good at telling a story in his work.

The journey that Portraiture has taken over its' history.

If am to describe what a portrait is to a person, I would say it is a photograph of a person mainly portraying who they want others to see them but not who they really are and only a few portraits portray a person's true self and usually they are taken without their consent.

I think portraiture is seen in different ways by different photographers and I found Diane Arbus and Tony Vaccaro's view on this form of photography quite interesting which made me change my whole view on portraiture. These two photographers' work changed the way portraits were viewed and taken because if one thinks of it, a portrait is a photograph usually portraying someone's role or looks in the best way which at most times does not show their true self and these two photographers did the opposite. They took portraits that showed people's true character for example: when Diane Arbus was hired by the Martais family in 1969, a wealth family living in New York, they hired her because her work was different from the rest and the pictures she took of the family portrayed them as a much rather normal laid back family but not as wealthy and important as the public portrayed them which is why I find her work unique and different as she portrays the truth in all her work. Unfortunately she later took her own life in 1971 but I think if that did not happen, she would have made a much greater impact on portraiture than the one she had left behind and definitely inspired photographers that came up after her.

The photographs above were taken by Diane Arbus.



Tony Vaccaro on the other hand had a quite similar but different approach to this style of photography. He as well captured the truth about the person but not the lie just to make them look good to the public. He also stated that a picture had to have that special quality describing them but not making them look good. For example with the photograph taken by Eddie Adams entitled 'The Execution' shows a general about to execute a prisoner and judging by this picture the general seems very harsh and merciless but at the end of the day had to do his job and we also do not know the prisoners side of the story, he might have been a ruthless criminal or even innocent and that is where Tony Vaccaro's work comes in as he took a photograph of Picasso, a famous painter and I order to capture his true self he told him that the camera he was using was working and when he portrayed an emotion of disappointment, if that's what one calls it, he took the shot and that way he was able to show someone's true self rather than portraying them as they want or as the public would have wanted to see them. Another thing that indirectly helped him take these photographs was the fact that he took his photographs when he was ready but not when the subject was ready.

 I have to say this work as well as other pieces of work done by different photographers in the sense of portraiture definitely changed that style in so many ways as it showed that there are so many ways one can take a portrait but not by just basing on the same old style where the photograph of the subject has to be taken at their best angle and they to show some kind of power or even portray what they did or what they were known for and with this I have to say that this has changed my whole understanding of this type of photography.