Thurston Hopkins
Godfrey Thurston Hopkins (16 April 1913 – 27 October 2014), known as Thurston Hopkins, was a British Picture Post photojournalist and a centenarian.
Education
Hopkins was born on 16 April 1913 in south London, son of Sybil (née Bateley) and Robert Thurston Hopkins (1884–1958), a bank cashier and prolific author of topographical works, ghost stories, and biographies of British writers Oscar Wilde, H. G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling. The family lived in Sussex and Godfrey, who came to be known as Thurston, was educated at St Joseph's Salesian school at Burwash, near Kipling's home in East Sussex, and at Montpelier college, Brighton.
Early work
Hopkins studied under Morgan Rendle at
Picture Post
After being demobilised, Hopkins hitchhiked around Europe for a while taking photographs. Back in England he worked for Camera Press,[2] the agency founded in London in 1947 by Tom Blau. Having seen issues of Picture Post at military posts everywhere during his service he developed a keen ambition to work for this.[1]
Founded in 1938 and funded by publisher
One of his first essays was his popular 'Cats of London' (24 February 1951),[8] a series made whilst working as a freelancer on other stories during which he would find stray cats living in the many bomb sites and back alleys. His best known photograph drew on this talent with animals. Entitled La Dolce Vita, Knightsbridge, London, 1953 the picture shows a limousine owner-driver with a regal poodle sitting bolt upright in the passenger seat. Ripe for commercial exploitation, it became a best selling postcard, poster and calendar image.
In support of the Post's social consciousness, Hopkins produced stories on children playing on the city streets[9] in an effort to have the need for dedicated playgrounds recognised.
His 1956 story on the slums of Liverpool, however, was spiked when the municipal administrators protested to the magazine's proprietor Edward Hulton, over its negative portrayal of the city.
At Picture Post Hopkins met, and in 1955 married,[10] another photographer: Grace Robertson,[11] who worked under the byline Dick Muir to get work at Simon Guttman's Report agency in an era when women were at a disadvantage in the industry.[12]
Later career
With the closure of Picture Post in 1957, Hopkins conducted business as one of London's more successful advertising photographers from his studio in Chiswick[13] before taking up teaching at the Guildford School of Art, a major British course in photography under Ifor Thomas.[7] In his rural retirement Hopkins returned to his interest in painting.[14]
Personal life and death
Hopkins worked well into his old age[15] and died a centenarian on 27 October 2014,[16][17][18][19] survived by wife Grace, (daughter of Fyfe Robertson), his daughter, Joanna, his son, Robert, and a granddaughter, Cressida.[20]
Legacy
Photographs by salaried staff of Picture Post were retained in copyright by the Hulton empire; and when the magazine closed, the archive was sold to the British Broadcasting Corporation, and then to Brian Deutsch. The collection, including all of Hopkins pictures he made for the Post, is now owned and managed by Getty Images.
Exhibitions
Solo
- 1977 Thurston Hopkins, Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London, 1 January 1977 – 1 December 1977[21]
- 1993 After Dark, Zelda Cheatle Gallery, Covent Garden, London.[22]
- 2003/4 The Golden Age of Reportage: Thurston Hopkins, Getty Images Gallery, London, 30 October 2003 – 2 January 2004
- 2005 A Song of the British: Thurston Hopkins, Leica Gallery, New York, 20 May – 18 Jun 2005
Group
- 2005 Dedans-Dehors: Le Portugal en photographies, Centre Calouste Gulbenkian, Collection de la Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Paris, France, 18 May – 12 July 2005.
- 2010 A Positive View: The Third Edition, Somerset House, South Building, London, 10 March – 5 April 2010
- 2015 Beneath the Surface, Somerset House, South Building, London, with Brassaï, Susan Derges, Sinje Dillenkofer, John Gay, Stephen Gill. 21 May – 24 August 2015
- 2016 An Ideal For Living: Photographing Class, Culture and Identity in Modern Britain, Huxley-Parlour Gallery, London, with 21 others including Richard Billingham, Bill Brandt, John Bulmer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson. 27 July – 17 September 2016
- 2016 Fine Photographs and Photobooks, Bloomsbury Auctions, London, with 31 others including Berenice Abbott, Eve Arnold, David Bailey, Édouard Baldus, Cecil Beaton. 15–20 October 2016
- 2016 British Photographers at Home and Abroad, Keith de Lellis Gallery, New York with Cecil Beaton, Ian Berry, John Bulmer, Larry Burrows, Graham Finlayson and others, 8 September – 22 October 2016
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8038-7199-1
- ^ a b Craig, Charles. (1982). The British documentary photograph as a medium of information and propaganda during the Second World War 1939–1945 (PDF). Doctoral dissertation, Middlesex Polytechnic.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-5682-0
- ISBN 978-1-907893-43-8)
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 978-0-19-174436-5
- ISBN 978-0-900406-67-6
- ^ a b Jay, B. (1993). Album: Two Editorials. History of Photography 17 (1), 10–12.
- ^ Brown, S. (1999). On View: Feline Fancy. The British Journal of Photography, 145 (7240), 16–17.
- ^ Hopkinson, A. (1993). On View: Street cred. The British Journal of Photography (Archive: 1860–2005), 140 (6919), 26–27.
- ^ Murphy, Anna (9 August 2010). "Grace Robertson, interview with the 1950s photojournalist". The Daily Telegraph.
- ISBN 1-85381-089-4.
- ^ Gross, J. (1990). Viewed: Fifties photojournalist. The British Journal of Photography (Archive: 1860–2005), 137 (6755), 16–17.
- ^ Hopkins, T. (1967). The Photojournalist in advertising. The British Journal of Photography, 114 (5599), 952–957.
- ^ Mitchell, D. (1990). Family Affairs. London Magazine, 30 (1), 74.
- ^ A portrait by George Newson taken in July 1995 of Hopkins at his typewriter in his office amongst his prints is held in the National Portrait Gallery
- ^ "Photojournalist Thurston Hopkins dies at age of 101 | 1854 Photography". www.1854.photography. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
- ^ The Guardian incorrectly gives 26 October as Hopkins date of death; "Thurston Hopkins obituary". The Guardian. 30 October 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
- ^ "Thurston Hopkins: Photojournalist whose work for 'Picture Post'". The Independent. 6 October 2015. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
- ^ Posted by Michael Pritchard on October 28, 2014 at 12:30; Blog, View. "Obituary: G Thurston Hopkins (1913-27 October 2014)". britishphotohistory.ning.com. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Amanda Hopkinson and David Mitchell 'Thurston Hopkins obituary: Photographer who made his reputation on the news magazine Picture Post in the 1950s', The Guardian, 30 October 2014
- ISSN 0306-817X
- ^ American Photo, June 1989, page 8, Vol. 22, No. 6, ISSN 1046-8986