Thomas Hoepker - 9/11

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Thomas Hoepker was born on June 10th 1936 in Munich, Germany. He began taking pictures when he was only 16. He used a camera given to him from his grandfather and developed prints in the kitchen and bathroom at his family’s house. He occasionally sold his pictures to classmates and friends for a little bit of money. At university he studies archaeology and art history and in class he got taught how to understand images and composition. After graduating got a job as a photographer for a German magazine where he got the opportunity to report from all over the world. After that he became a photojournalist for Sterm magazine. After that he was a cameraman for German TV making documentary films, documenting real life. He worked is his way up the careers ladder finally ending up as president for the company magnum who began distributing his work in 1964.

Hoepker is now 77 years old and he makes TV documentaries with his wife Christine Kruchen. His passion for capturing real life is still going strong.

So what about his most famous piece of work? Well this is debated to be it.

Thomas Hoepker took this picture on the 11th of September 2001. In the background you can see the major event that was happening at the time, the 9/11 twin towers terrorist attack. When the photo was first published there was huge uproar because to everyone, it looked like the subjects in the photo didn't care about the horror happening behind them. Although this perception was factually inaccurate, Hoepker personally withdrew the photo. Time passed and finally Hoepker chose to republish the image 5 years after the tragedy because the issue wasn't as sensitive to people, half a decade on, as it was to them on the day.

At a glance the photo makes it look like the subjects are just having a jolly time with no regard for the commotion happening behind them. This is further emphasized by the postures of the people. The woman on the wall seems relaxed, almost as if she’s sunbathing. The men either side of the woman are slouched and very informally positioned. The fact that they are all siting down shows that they are comfortably settled where they are, but that could be seen as if they have no regard for the catastrophe behind them.

The reality of the photo was that they were all strangers to each other, except the man and women furthest right on the wall who were dating at the time. They had all tried to get across the Williamsburg Bridge to help out with the incident but were refused entry so they had no other option than to sit and watch from a distance. They were all actually deeply affected by the situation but were completely powerless and it has been discovered that they were actually talking about what had happened, this further proves that they really cared. Walter Sipser (the man on the far right of the wall) was tracked down and has since quoted: ‘It was clear that people who ordinarily would not have spoken two words to each other were suddenly bound together, which I suppose must be a fairly common occurrence in the aftermath of a catastrophe.’

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Portraiture

Discuss the journey that Portraiture has taken over its' history. 

History of Portraiture

Portraiture is an art form depicting individuals or a group of people in a recognizable way. This includes painting, sculpture and photography. They generally represent someone's status within society, for example royalty were always in expensive finery with a dominating stance. Wearing armor would symbolize, a crown would symbolize royalty and so on.

Some of the first portraits discovered were from Ancient Egypt. Sarcophagus' and statues were modeled/drawn from real people, generally the more wealthy like kings and rulers. They commissioned these so that there they would be immortalized for everyone to see.They would always be portrayed in a positive way since the artists didn't have a choice. They wouldn't get paid if the artwork didn't end up how the client wanted. 

Above right: An ancient Egyptian sarcophagus.

By the nineteenth century the use of the portrait was changing. Society was becoming more literate meaning that books and words became more popular than painting when describing someone's appearance. 

By the twentieth century photographic portraits where taking over as technology advanced and pictures became sharper and more defined. They could be symbolic, artistic, formal or really any style at all. Celebrities and royalty could be shown in any kind of light with the photograph being an actual representation if them. No waiting in long sittings, a portrait could be almost instant. This was appealing and suddenly portraits weren't just for the privileged. All kinds of people had them done.

 
Left: The royal commissioned portrait of Catherine Duchess Of Cambridge.

Above right: The Queen on a £10 bank note.

Nowadays portraits are common place. The queen's portrait is on our currency, we have school photos done every year, photos in out passports, photos on our driving licences and any other ID cards we may own. Portraits are available to everyone whereas they used to be just for the well off.

Diane Arbus
Left: Diane Arbus self portrait.

Arbus always photographed in black and white squares. Her subjects were always "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal" (mostly giants, dwarfs, nudists, transgender people and circus performers). She looked for the strange and maybe even slightly repulsive things to photograph. She accentuated people's flaws and the things they didn't want others to see. To many she was known as the "the photographer of freaks". She refused to hide any imperfections, her work was 100% realistic.

Diane Arbus (1923 - 71) was born into a wealthy Jewish-American family. She married Allan Arbus at the age of 18 and spent the next 20 years working as professional fashion photographers. Her style then drastically changed quickly as she became fascinated with the weird things in the world.

In late 1969 she was commisioned to take the Matthaei family portraits. Konrad Matthaei (the father of the family) was a well-known television actor and theater owner surrounded by media attention. For two days, Arbus followed the family around taking pictures of everything, from meals, to the children playing with their new presents. She set up her photographs very carefully by removing obstacles and arranging people how she wanted. By the end of the two days she had taken 322 photographs, which averages at one photograph every two minutes, pretty impressive. All the photos represented her style and look on life. It was a vernacular photography (the photography of ordinary/normal things).

Above right: A picture from the Matthaei family shoot.

Walker Evans
Left: Walker Evans self portrait.

Evans was an American photographer who aimed to take pictures that were "literate, authoritative and transcendent". His best known work is probably how he documented the effects of the great depression. 

Walker Evans came from a good family and he was well educated. He went from studying french literature to joining the art crow in New York, quite a drastic career change. He began photography in 1982 and slowly grew in his profession. Then in 1985 came the great depression. He was employed for two months to document, through photography, what was happening in America at the time. Throughout that time he photographed families suffering. The images he produced were gritty and painted a very realistic picture of life during the great depression. The portraits exposed the subjects feelings and their appearance emphasized the poverty they were in.

Right: Allie Mae Burroughs. Evan's most symbolic photo of the great depression.

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