Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/05/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]To the LUG, This is an open invitation card with text for the Leica Galleryopening reception. Cheers,John_______________________________________________________________ THURSTON HOPKINS A Song of the British 20 May - 18 June 2005 Reception: Thursday, 19 May, 6 - 8 pm English Cats - Ancient and ModernPhotographs by Thurston Hopkins and Grace Robertson in the Gallery Alcove In the Oskar Barnack Room: Remembering George Rodger (1908 - 1995) * * * * * Leica Gallery / 670 Broadway / New York City 10012 212.777.3051 / Fax 212.777.6960 / leicaphoto at aol.com________________________________________________________________"In his life ? and his work ? [Thurston Hopkins] has always avoided theshowy, the demonstrative, the self-congratulatory? he decided todevote his life,himself, to photography. I suspect that the reasons for this decision lieembedded in his respect for craftsmanship, and his congenital unpretentiousness?he has never tumbled into the traps of cynicism, opportunism, routine, fashionor sheer greed that await so many 'promising' photographers. He could notoffer anything but his best. He would feel that he was wasting histime ? that hewas being frivolous? Warm Humanity is what he claims to admire most in otherpeople. It is precisely that quality, compounded with an instinctivegenerosity of spirit and consummate craftsmanship that has madeThurston Hopkins'collection of photographs a revealing record of his time ? and of himself." -Robert Muller, Thurston Hopkins (Gordon Fraser Photographic Monographs, 1977) In a major critical review of Thurston Hopkins' Picture Post work, ? LIFEwas our equivalent ? the noted art critic, Waldemar Januszczak, wrote in theSunday Times ("Trend of an Era" (London/March 28, 2004): "Picture Post was the1950s in magazine form, the record of post-war England. Its great talent wasThurston Hopkins ? who photographed the biggest stars and wasn't afraid toilluminate the dark side of life? Hopkins could only star in a film ifhe took theDavid Niven role. What a charmer. What a gentleman. What an instinctivewearer of the cravat. Between 1950 and '57, Hopkins was the star photographer onPicture Post? To be a star photographer on Picture Post was to hold thisnation's soul in your grasp. And Hopkins once held a sizable slab of it in his?He's one of our finest British photographers. It's an honor to meet him." Thurston Hopkins was born in England in 1913, the son of the biographer,Robert Thurston Hopkins. He attended Brighton College of Art and trained as amagazine illustrator, later working as a freelance graphic artist forboys' booksand women's magazines. During the Depression years of the 1930s, he worked asa draftsman at the Fleet Street photo agency, Photopress, designing heraldicsettings as part of an exclusive collection of photographs of the then Princeof Wales. After the subsequent abdication, the project was abandoned and it wassuggested that Hopkins try his luck with photography. From his beginnings innewspaper work (sometimes five to six assignments per day), his photographsbecame more and more frequently seen in the emerging picture magazines. WhenWorld War II intervened, Hopkins volunteered for the Royal Air ForcePhotographicUnit. During these years overseas, Hopkins acquired his first Leica in Italy- "The first camera I can recall handling without a certain feeling ofdistaste." After the war, Thurston Hopkins became a freelance photographer and then wasinvited to join the staff of Picture Post. His first assignment was the "Catsof London." A selection of these early photographs forms a part of the smallexhibition in the gallery alcove shown with those of his photographer-wife,Grace Robertson. On the staff at Picture Post until its demise in 1957, Hopkins'assignments were worldwide; nevertheless, much of his most significant workconcentrated on aspects of British life from which the images in this exhibitionhave been chosen. During his eight years at the magazine, he was honored bytwo Encyclopedia Britannica British Press Pictures of the Year Awards for hishard-hitting social photojournalism. One was for his photographic expos? of theliving conditions in the Liverpool slums, of which the British Journal ofPhotography commented in 1957: "Here is superb photography, stark inits realism,an example of photographic journalism at its very best. The pictures telltheir own story, carry their own message? and should be seen and carefullystudied by all photographers." After Picture Post closed, Thurston Hopkins set up his own studio in Chiswickand for the next decade became one of London's most in-demand advertisingphotographers. In 1968, he took up a lectureship at the pioneering GuildfordSchool of Photography, helping to train a new generation of students inphotographic philosophy and technique. Now a full-time painter, he andhis wife, GraceRobertson (whom he met when they were colleagues at Picture Post) live atSeaford in Sussex. A major exhibition, "Thurston Hopkins: The Golden Age of Reportage," washeld at the Getty Images Gallery in London (2003 ?2004) and at The NationalTheatre (2004). Roger Hargreaves, senior curator of London's National PortraitGallery, has said: "Thurston Hopkins is one of the great masters of the picturestory." His work is cited in such publications as Rosenblum's A History ofWorld Photography (1997), Tausk's Photography in the 20th Century(1980), and ThePhotography Book (1997). Much of his work is in the Getty Images'Hulton/Archive and is a part of major public collections including TheVictoria and AlbertMuseum, London and the Museum of London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NewYork; The Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego; and the J. Paul Getty Museum,Los Angeles. It is a distinct honor to be able to present at Leica Gallery the photographsof Thurston Hopkins: a master-photographer and our personal friend. Rose and Jay Deutsch On-site Directors