In 1989 Thomas Hoepker became the first German member of the Magnum agency and was its president from 2003-2007. His pictures are committed, unadorned and dedicated to the truth, but never voyeuristic or hurtful. Unagitated, subtle and far from sensationalism, they have become icons of "concerned photography". Thomas Hoepker, born in 1936, lives in New York and Berlin and is still one of the great representatives of "humanistic photojournalism".
USA. New York. Manhattan. 1983. Traffic on Times Square. © Thomas Hoepker
Alte Frau im Schneegestöber, Hamburg 1954 © Thomas Hoepker
Thomas Hoepker has always seen himself modestly as a commissioned photographer. As one who is interested in nothing less than reality, in the truthfulness of the moment. As a 14-year-old, he experimented with a glass plate camera, from 1959 he worked for magazines and yearbooks, travelled for several months through the USA for the magazine Kristall and realised his legendary reportage Champ about Muhammad Ali in 1966. From 1964, he was a regular contributor to Stern magazine, whose visual language he had a lasting influence on. With his precise image design, dense pictorial statements and fine visual sense, Hoepker shaped German photojournalism like hardly anyone else.
Honest Joes Pawn Brokers shop, Dallas Texas 1963 © Thomas Hoepker
USA. Chicago.1966. MUHAMMAD ALI, (formerly Cassius Clay), boxing world heavy weight champion , walking under the elevated train in Chicago's Sout Side. © Thomas Hoepker
In 1976 Hoepker moved to New York, in 1989 he became the first German member of the Magnum agency and was its president from 2003-2007. His pictures are committed, unadorned and dedicated to the truth, but never voyeuristic or hurtful. Unagitated, subtle and far from sensationalism, they have become icons of "concerned photography". Thomas Hoepker, born in 1936, lives in New York and Berlin and is still one of the great representatives of "humanistic photojournalism".
Tanzendes Paar, Tucson Arizona 1967 © Thomas Hoepker
The exhibition "Wanderlust" by Thomas Hoepker can be seen Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the Leica Galerie Düsseldorf in the KÖ Galerie, Königsallee 60
through November 6, 2021
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