Profile on Thomas Hoepker

An amazing German photographer, Born in Munich in 1936. His photos were known for having stylish colour photo features. His name was Thomas Hoepker he was one of the many photographers on the 9/11 attack that day that took many photographs but there was one photograph in particular that stood out of the many that he took that day. 

The photography wasn’t even published until years later after the 9/11 event

 but still after it had been published it caused so much controversial. That when Hoepker had the image up on a wall in an exhibition and the front cover of his book that was with the show, he didn’t know it was going to have so many questions asked about it, from people viewing the exhibition and from the press.

No one would have thought that this one photograph that he took that day would cause so much chaos. Everyone had a different opinion about this photo especially the photographer, people looking at the photo and the people in the photograph too. However I did quite liked the fact that everyone had their own opinion on this particular photograph because if everyone had the same opinion then it wouldn’t be as a popular photo as it is was and the photographer probably wouldn’t be as well-known as he is either.

 In the photograph Thomas Hoepker took on 11 September 2001, a group of New Yorkers sit chatting in the sun in a park in Brooklyn. Behind them, across clear blue water, a terrible cloud of smoke rises above lower Manhattan from the place where the two twin towers were struck by hijacked airliners this same morning the photograph was taken.

This image that Hoepker took was a decisive moment and in my opinion if Thomas hadn't taken the photo then someone else might of had instead. He was passing by making his way to Manhattan, out of the coner of his eye he saw this scene, stepped out of his car took the photo, then carried on making his way getting closer to Manhattan. Even Hoepker thought that even his own photography that he took was really confusing to be published in 2001 thats why he kept until he decided to publish it later.

One of the people that where in the photograph that Hoepker had taken said that Thomas Hoepker never asked permission from the five people to take a photograph of them in that scene. Walter Sipser said this, he also said that Hoepker took the photo of him, his girlfriend that were sitting and talking to the strangers about the horrible scene, while behind them, that tragic event happened. Earlier the people had watched what happened and couldn’t believe; they had watched the Twin Towers collapse and had gone down to the waterfront. They were all in a state of shock and disbelief about what happened as everyone else was too. Now had Hoepker gone over to the group and asked permission to take the photograph he would have heard a conversation about what just happened and the group talking about it, if that would have happened I believe that the photo would have given the right impression and not the wrong one. 
 

Thomas Hoepker was a memeber at the Magnum Photos and also the president from 2003 to 2006. For most of his career of being a photographer he used a a Lecia camera or Lecia cameras, in around 1970s he began to use Single-lens reflex camera too as well as his Lecia camera.

 

 

Analysis of the Image - Thomas Hoepker

This is a picture of the 9/11 attack in New York. The Photographer, Thomas Hoepker, captures a photograph that was proved highly controversial. He banned the image up until 5 years after the 9/11 attack because of the response he knew he would get, this must of meant Hoepker notice the offence in this image and what some people might say about it.

The image was controversial because the people in the photograph look as if they are enjoying the pleasant weather, and look rather relaxed. The people also act like nothing has happened and are just generally have a day out. The colours are vibrant and stand out looking fresh however not one single person out the group is looking at the destructive chaos behind them. In 2006, 5 years after the attack, when the image was revealed, ''Walter Sipser, identifying himself as the guy in shades at the right of the picture, said he and his girlfriend, apparently sunbathing on a wall, were in fact "in a profound state of shock and disbelief". ''Hoepker, they both complained, had photographed them without permission in a way that misrepresented their feelings and behaviour. '' Said the Guardian with a quote from Sipser.

Life had to carry on, and people did have to go back to the normal life routines despite what tragic event happened in New York. The picture had shown a frozen image at certain time of the day, so you can't really know what happened before or after the photograph had been taken, so should we really judge the people? ''As an image of a cataclysmic historical moment captures something that is true of all historical moments: life does not stop dead because a battle or an act of terror is happening nearby.'' Quoted from the Guardian. The quote set a great explanatory of the photograph and that it has two sets of emotions. First the bright vibrant colours, the greenery also the people very relaxed, dark shadows from the sun beaming down followed in by a tragic event of smoke and destruction.

In photography images tend to have titles, headings or even a little description however this picture came with no explanation just on its own which opened up the meaning. The people in this picture may look like they have no idea what is happening or just don't care and enjoying the day in the warm sunshine or might be in shock, without any text or description about the image we see the picture how we interpret it. For example when I first looked at the image I thought the people didn't care about the tragic event going on behind them and were just enjoying the glorious day. Once I had some research I found out that the people in the photograph were in shock, and potentially stunned by what they could witness, but because of the sun was out and the bold colours and they the people were sitting in the image, I interpreted in a completely different way to the actual moment. This is because there was no text to inform us of the actual situation as we don't know what happened before or after the image was taken.

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