The internationally renowned German photographer Thomas Hoepker has died. He died on July 11 in Santiago de Chile at the age of 88. He died “peacefully,” his agency Magnum Photos announced.
Hoepker was the author of some of the most famous photographs of the past decades. His iconic photo from September 11, 2001 sparked controversy: it shows a group of young people sitting together in a seemingly relaxed manner in front of the blue East River in New York. Behind them in Manhattan, thick clouds of smoke rise into the sky above the metropolis after the attack by jihadists on the World Trade Center.
Hoepker was accused of the picture being tendentious and anti-American; one of the people depicted complained that Hoepker had photographed her without asking and that they had actually been discussing the disaster at that moment.
Other well-known images of the photojournalist included the portraits he took of boxing legend Muhammad Ali: Ali with his fist very close to the lens, jumping in front of a skyline or eating ice cream in bed – Hoepker was very close. The artist Roy Lichtenstein also took photos in his studio or captured the energy of New York and the mood in America in the 1960s.
From Munich to the world
Hoepker was born in Munich in 1936. He studied art, history and archaeology. However, his passion was photography ever since his grandfather bought him a camera for his 14th birthday. Before he finished his studies, he was hired by the “Münchner Illustrierte” and moved to the magazine “Stern” in 1964.
At the same time, he joined the legendary photo agency Magnum and was even its president from 2003 to 2006. In 1976, Hoepker moved to New York, where he worked as visual director for the magazine “Geo”, among other things. His pictures inspired and were exhibited all over the world. In 2022, the documentary film “Dear Memories” was released, in which Hoepker, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, takes a final road trip through the USA before it is too late.
In the same year, the Galerie Buchkunst in Berlin showed the exhibition “My Way”, with early pictures of poverty and wealth in America, which he had photographed in 1963 on a later legendary trip for the magazine “Kristall”.
In 2007, Hoepker explained his working method in an interview with the German Press Agency with the following words: “You also have to get your opinion across and not just compose beautifully. The photographer as an author is important. He should not only depict and record what is happening, but develop an opinion about his subject. You either hate it or you love it, but lukewarm is always uninteresting.”