Celebrated German Photographer, Thomas Hoepker, is a controversial figure in the photographic world. Born in 1936 in Germany, Hoepker is a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos and is known for his stylish colour photos, and also for his photographic documentation of the World Trade Centre attacks on 9/11. But more of that in a bit.
Hoepker's photographic roots go back to when he was 16, when he was gifted with an old 9x12 glass plate camera. He started to develop his shots in his family kitchen, and made a bit of money selling them to classmates. Hoepker then went onto further education in Goettingen, in Munich, Germany, where he studied Art History and Archaeology. After finishing his education, Hoepker followed into the world of his passion, photography, and became a photojournalist Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall, getting the opportunity to travel the world and report from many different locations. He then moved on, and in 1964 he began working as a photojournalist for Stern Magazine.
In 1966, some of Hoepker's most famous photo's were taken, when he was given the opportunity to work with Boxing icon Muhammad Ali, and one of the best shots from the gallery can be seen here. This image would soon become rather iconic for Magnum Photos, and also for Hoepker himself. Soon enough, in 1968, Hoepker won his first award, the Kulturpreis, Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Photographie. Magnum Photos, the worldwide photography company, co-founded by famous photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, first began distributing Hoepker's photos in 1964, and in 1989 Hoepker became a fully fledged member. And then between 2003 - 2006 he became the President of the company.
As the 1960's turned into the 1970's, Hoepker found himself working for German television, making documentary films such as The Village Arabati. In 1976, Hoepker and his wife of the time, Eva Windmoeller, relocated to New York as correspondents for Stern Magazine. His move to New York then lead him to work for American Geo, as the director of photography. But then he went back to Stern Magazine, and moved to Hamburg, where he worked as the art director for the magazine. When the millennium turned, Hoepker was back in New York, and was one of the many photographers who managed to capture images of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, although instead of the usual images of destruction, Hoepker caught an image which would prove to be rather controversial. Although originally Hoepker thought it was unsuitable for public viewing, the image soon found its way into light, and caused uproar at the view point that the image made out the citizens of New York didn't care about the destruction of their city.
Hoepker stated that at first the 'shot didn't "feel right" at this moment and I put it in the "B" box of rejected images' and it wasn't until preparing for his exhibition in Germany in 2007 did he decide to publish it, as it seemed to just 'jump' out at him.
For Much of his career, Hoepker favoured Leica Cameras over everything else. However, in the 1970s he started to use Single-Lens Reflex Cameras alongside his Leica camera, which he used for wide angle shots. He used Canon or Nikon cameras with zoom lenses as well. In 2002, Hoepker finally joined the digital revolution and started to use Digital SLRs. In 2007, a retrospective exhibition of 230 images from his 50 years of work did a German 'tour', as well as other parts of Europe.
It is fair to say, controversy aside, that Hoepker's images are indeed iconic, and he will go down as one of the great photographers of the 20th an 21st Century.
Jack Uttley
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