Thomas Hoepker

Thomas Hoepker

Do you remember 9/11? The day that shook the world and united people together to help others. On 9/11 four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States in New York City and Washington D.C. on that Tuesday 4 planes were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists The hijackers intentionally crashed two planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City. Hijackers crashed Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Virginia. The fourth jet, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to take control before it could reach the intended target in Washington D.C. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks that day.

On that morning a photographer by the name of Thomas hoepker was in Williamsburg when the two planes crashed into the world trade centre. And this is where he took the most controversial 9/11 photograph. The scene was set, a beautiful blue sky filled by the shinning sun. People relaxing and conversing by the river side while eating sandwiches and drinking ice cold drinks. It was a beautiful scene filled with happiness and laughter, but then when the planes struck the scene changes. And this was the image hoepker got. The people relaxing on the riverside conversing and the death and destruction in the background of the towers with their flowing black smooth smoke pouring out of them.

Now hoepker was a German photographer that had many jobs in the film and photography industry but his job at the present time was working for magnum photos a well know photo company known for its strong and powerful but at the same time very simple images just like the one hoepker had just captured on this camera. Hoepker first found his love for photography when he was 16 and his granddad gave him his first camera, a glass plate camera. He was very keen in this photography and loved it. He started developing his own photos in his kitchen and even selling them for money to family and friends. He carried on selling his photos to go towards his education in art history and archaeology in Germany, where he learned about images and composition in a photo. He joined Magnum Photos and they  first began distributing Hoepker's photographs in 1964. Hoepker became a full member in 1989. He served as Magnum President from 2003 to 2006. One of his most famous quotes is ‘I’m not an artist I’m an image maker’.

And this quote became true after his 9/11 photo was taken as there where many photos from 9/11 taken somewhere aloud to be shown some not. But 99 % of them photos where to show the destruction and distort of the event. But the 9/11 photo taken by Thomas hoepker is very different and confusing because it shows the twin towers on fire and collapsing but shows the bright blue sky with the sun shinny and five young joyful people having a great time relaxing. This photo could be split in two. One half showing the attack the other an advert for a holiday or restaurant. One half is full of destruction and pain the other full of happiness and laughter. hoepker kept this image to himself for many years due to the fact he did not believe that it did not reflect at all what had transpired on that day. The picture was different and confusing publishing it might distort the reality of what really happened that day.

Portraiture

Diane Arbus
Diane was an American portrait photographer in the early 60's. she belived in capturing the truth about a person in a single frame and stripping away what they want you to see and to show what they dont what you to. she was known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'. as she only took photos of people out of the ordinary or who where not considered beautiful in soceity like dwarfs, giants, transvestites, nudists and circus performers or of people whose normality seems ugly. but she only classed they as unique and wanted to steal and exploit other people lives. but sadly in 1971 she committed suicide due to the fact she had very strong periods of depression. Arbus wrote in 1968 "I go up and down a lot," and her ex-husband noted that she had "violent changes of mood." On July 26, 1971, while living at Westbeth Artists Community in New York City, Arbus took her own life by ingesting barbiturates and slashing her wrists with a razor.Marvin Israel found her body in the bathtub two days later; she was 48 years old.

Richard Avedon was another portrait photographer, but instead of taking an interest in 'freaks' he took his angle on fashin portrait photography. his aim was to take all the control from the person in front of the camera and give it all to the camera itself. and to make the famous look divine and perfect. they say that Avedon's photography helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture.

Another amazing portrait photographer was Larry clark. his angle on his portrait photography was from his neighbourhood. he was know as the kid with the camera. he would onlky take pictures of his 'tribe' so to speak, when they would go to drug houses and orgys. but this was the world he was apart of and he kept and image diary of his life on his camera. he took it everywhere he went and he would always capture the dirty, girtty and nasty images he could see.

Photojournalism part 2

Robert capa was a bulgarian soldier who was also a photographer/photojournalist. He took countless amazing desisive moment photographs from many diffrent wars but his most famous were his photos from world war 2. some people say he is the worlds greatest war photographer and was 100% deadicated to his job of getting heart stopping photos from the war. he risked his life and was always on the front line, he was the first man to take D-day landing pictures. photographs that will remain in history forever. He was amazing at capturing reailty with his lica camera and always carried this on until his death in 1954.



Tony Vaccaro was another amazing war photographer/photojournalist. his most famous work is also from world war 2 with stunning photographys that will also go down and be remembered in history forever. Although they say Robert Capa was the worlds greatest war photographer, some belive that Tony Vaccaros world war 2 pictures where the best there have ever been. Vaccaro could not afford the famous lica camera so all of his work was done on his argus c3 camera. and in times of trouble when he could not get the picures back to normal civilisation he developed his photographs in soldiers helmets, with a little help from a collapst camera shop and water he developed them himself. but the photographys would later he destroyed by the commanders because the photos contained images dead g.i's that the world was not ready to see.

photojournilism part 1

Henri cartier bresson
Born on August 22, 1908 was a french photojournilist also know as the god father of photoournilism.
 He was a serilist symapthiser and a stalker to life. he was always in the right place at the right time and most of the time waiting in areas because he said and i quote "into this space life will come".

The desisve moment

The desisve moment- aslo know as one of the greatest photos of the 20th century. the compotition is perfect. there are many names for this photo, the man jumping  puddel or the man jumping into the unkown or the broken hoop/wheel.


The leica camera

the camera that changed the photographic world forever. with instant photography to capture the world around you within a flash. another great thing about the camera was it was small, compact, portable and quite. you didnt need to set a tripod up and wait eight minutes to take the photo, you just needed to whip it out your pocket and snap! the leica camera was releast in 1925 nine years before the desisve moment was photographed, they were expesive and pretty rare but henri was a rich man and his money went to amazing use and made history.