Thurston Hopkins

Mr Hopkins, one of the most renown British photojournalists of our last century, has selected for this exhibition @ Getty Images Gallery his favorite memories of Europe in the 50s.. a very personal collection of works portraying all sorts of life experiences…  the suburbs, the cinema star-system at that time… good old memories.

Thurston (98 years old) has carefully selected, together with her also photographer wife Grace Robertson, the most relevant images from that decade, the end of the golden age for photojournalism where illustrated magazines published the closest aspects of local life & social reality.

The exhibition also features some of Thurston’s personal negatives, alongside iconic images of Joan Crawford, Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman. Most of these images were originally published by the legendary Brit magazine “Picture Post”. A magazine that like “Paris Match” or the American “Life” made famous certain photographers like Robert Capa, Bill Brandt, Erich Salomon, Margaret Bourke-White (and Hopkins himself).

Hopkins loved his Leica camera, and with such device he would capture scenes of British city poverty that quickly became icons of an era, like the child playing with a gun in the street with half of his body inside a tank coal, or the lonely girl sleeping covered with newspapers.

Pictures of the taverns where the workers gathered at the end of their day to drink wine, snapshots of the London & Paris high-class borgeois life, … “Hopkins had an uncanny ability to get people to trust him so he could photograph them. He could access to places where few could enter,” commented Gallery Director, Louise Garczewska”.

So as we always say… nothing to do for the royal wedding? This is a better option! (Even if the Gallery is in central London and you may not be willing to go this weekend). The exhibition runs until June 4th. Free of course. More info on the Gallerly website.