Quote: "I am not an artist. I am an image maker".

Thomas Hoepker joined Magnum Photos in 1964 and became a full Member in 1989.


Thomas Hoepker
German, b. 1936

Thomas Hoepker studied art history and archeology, then worked as a photographer for Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall between 1960 and 1963, reporting from all over the world. He joined Stern magazine as a photo-reporter in 1964.

Magnum began to distribute Hoepker's archive photographs in 1964. He worked as cameraman and producer of documentary films for German television in 1972, and from 1974 collaborated with his wife, the journalist Eva Windmoeller, first in East Germany and then in New York, where they moved to work as correspondents for Stern in 1976. From 1978 to 1981 Hoepker was director of photography for the American edition of Geo.

Hoepker worked as art director for Stern in Hamburg between 1987 and 1989, when he became a full member of Magnum. Specializing in reportage and stylish color features, he received the prestigious Kulturpreis of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie in 1968. Among many other awards for his work, he received one in 1999 from the German Ministry of Foreign Aid for Death in a Cornfield, a TV film on Guatemala. Today Hoepker lives in New York. He shoots and produces TV documentaries together with his second wife Christine Kruchen. He was president of Magnum Photos from 2003 to 2006. A retrospective exhibition, showing 230 images from fifty years of work, toured Germany and other parts of Europe in 2007.

Education

1956/59 Art History and Archaeology, Goettingen/Munich, Germany

Awards

1999 German ministry of foreign aid, 1st prize for documentary Death in a Cornfield
1968 Kulturpreis, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Photographie

Exhibitions

2006 Photographien 1955-2005 - Photomuseum, Munich, Germany
1995 Retrospective - Claus Tebbe Gallery, Cologne, Germany
1994 The Maya - Kunsthalle Cologne, Cologne, Germany
1985/87 Retrospective, 25 cities in Germany
1976 Rizzoli Gallery, New York and Rizzoli Gallery, Washington D.C., USA
1965 Kunst und Gewerbe Museum, Hamburg, Germany

Books

2005 Thomas Hoepker, Photographien 1955-2005, Schirmer & Mosel, Germany
1998 Return of the Maya: Guatemala. A Tale of Survival, Henry Holt, USA
1991 Land of Enchantment, New Mexico, Philip-Morris books, Germany
1989 HA Schult, Fetisch Auto, Germany
1988 Rome, Hofmann & Campe, Germany
1987 New Yorker: 50 unusual portraits, Stemmle, Schaffhausen, Germany
1986 HA Schult, New York ist Berlin, Germany
1986 Amerika: History of the discovery from Florida to Canada, Germany
1985 Leben in der DDR. Life in East Germany, Sternbuch, Germany
1985 Ansichten.Fotos von 1960 bis 1985, Braus, Heidelberg, Germany
1984 Der Wahn vom Weltreich: Germany’s former Colonies, Sternbuch, Germany
1984 Now! überdosis New York/ HA Schult., Germany
1983 Die New York-Story, GEO Buch, Germany
1983 Thomas H?pker (I Grandi Fotografi), Rizzoli,Italy
1978 Vienna, Time/Life books, Holland
1977 Heinz Mack, Expedition in künstliche G?rten. Art in Desert and Ice, Sternbuch,
Germany
1976 Berliner W?nde, C. Hanser, Germany
1974 Die Iren und ihre Lieder, (Ireland and its songs), Germany
1967 Horst Janssen, artist’s portraits, Galerie Brockstedt, Germany
1963 Yatun papa. Father of the Indians. Dr. Theodor Binder, Kosmos, Germany
1963 Lebendiges Kiel, Presseamt der Stadt Kiel, Germany
1960 Finnland, Terra Magica, Germany
1957 Jugend in dieser Zeit, Steingrüben, Germany

Films

2005 Ice-cold Splendor
2003 Easter Island
2000 Robinson Crusoe Island
1998 Death in a Cornfield
1973 The Village Arabati