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Last chance to view THOMAS HOEPKER – THE WAY IT WAS at Galerie Bildhalle
visura blog
May 17, 2022
Exhibition lasts until Saturday, May 28 2022.
THOMAS HOEPKER – THE WAY IT WAS is the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands to feature work by this renowned Magnum photographer. The show presents a comprehensive retrospective, ranging from his early work from the 1960s, when Hoepker travelled widely both through the United States and elsewhere, to his iconic portraits of Muhammad Ali and his compelling New York photographs of the 1970s and 1980s. An entire floor will be dedicated to Hoepker’s photos of Ali, including iconic vintage pictures printed by the photographer himself within two years after they had been taken.
Born in Munich in 1936, Hoepker ranks among the foremost German photojournalists of the late 20th century. As such, he not only experienced but also played a defining role in the second golden age of photojournalism, after the 1920s and ’30s. He has made photographic history not only for his contributions to magazines such as Stern, Geo, Kristall and the Münchner Illustrierte, but also as art director, writer and filmmaker. Many of his black-and-white photo essays rank among the greatest of photojournalism.
As a reporter for Stern, he had the opportunity to portray the boxer Muhammad Ali in 1964, continuing to do so at regular intervals for 10 years. In 1966 Hoepker and his then wife, Stern journalist Eva Windmöller, joined the boxing legend in London and Chicago. In 1970, Hoepker was on hand with his camera when Ali, who had been out of the ring for some time, was preparing himself for the “fight of the century” against Joe Frazier. He met up with him again years later when he was already debilitated by Parkinson’s. Many of these pictures are known worldwide and have become icons of photography. They have been widely exhibited in museums and represented in many collections.
In 1976, Hoepker moved to New York as a correspondent for Stern and, until 1981, he was director of the American edition of GEO. From 1987 to 1989, he worked as the Art Director of Stern in Hamburg. In 1989, he became the first German national to be accepted by Magnum as a full member, going on to become president of the agency from 2003 to 2006. Thomas Hoepker is now married to filmmaker Christine Kruchen; he lives and works in New York.
Thomas Hoepker studied art history and archeology, then worked as a photographer for Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall between 1960 and 1963, reporting from all over the world. He joined Stern magazine as a photo-reporter in 1964.
Magnum began to distribute Hoepker‘s archive photographs in 1964. He worked as a 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.
Hoepker worked as art director for Stern in Hamburg between 1987 and 1989, when he became a full member of Magnum.Specializing in reportage and stylish color features, 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.
THOMAS HOEPKER – THE WAY IT WASBildhalle.ch
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