[Leica] INVITATION: LEICA GALLERY OPENING RECEPTION - THURSDAY, 5/19/05 (W/ TEXT)

[jwlee01 at gmail.com (John Lee)]

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