"I am not an Artist. I am an Image Maker." - Thomas Hoepker

Imagine the first day you held a camera in your youth. Remember the first time you heard the camera click, saw the light flash and the felt the servos whirr in your palms, the fact that you had captured that moment for eternity? In that very second you had taken your first steps into the beautiful, surreal and sometimes terrifying world of photography. You could look back on that moment fondly. Such memories are to be treasured.

But, did you ever stop and think? Did you realise that the moment you started your travels in the realm of taking photographs, that perhaps your photos could change the world? You'd be shocked deeply, and perhaps you'd be too scared to lift a camera again if you knew the true power of what you held in your fingertips. Perhaps you didn't think that, at some point, a photo you took could divide opinion, raise anger in the calmest of people, turn friends into enemies, and cause bitterness in a whole generation of people.

Did the now world famous photographer, Thomas Hoepker, think about this When he was 16 and his grandfather gifted him his first camera? Did he ever stop and think of the potential his photos could have? Perhaps, perhaps not. I'm sure he would never have realised back then, that on the fateful day of the September the 11th 2001 atrocities he would capture a single moment that would spark a decade of anger, shock, sadness, and vicious debate among not just a few people, not just an entire country, but the whole world.

The Image Maker

Thomas Hoepker is a native German, born in 1936 in Munich. After World War 2, on his 16th birthday, his grandfather bought him a 9x12 glass plate camera. As an industrious and savvy young fellow, Hoepker took pictures of anything and everything, and developed the photos in his kitchen and bathroom and made some money by selling the pictures to friends and peddling them on the streets to strangers.

He eventually moved on to marry his first wife, Eva Windmoller, and together they moved to Berlin. Eva was a journalist, and together with his wife Hoepker took photographs for articles detailing life in East Germany during Socialist rule that helped the West understand what it was like, as very little was known.



In 1964 Hoepker joined the world renowned photographic agency "Magnum", and became fully accredited by them in 1989. He was also the first German to become president of Magnum, from 2003 to 2006.

Thomas Hoepker's Magnum Page

Hoepker is well known for his photographic style, using a wide palette of colours. He was one of the favourite photographers of multi world title winning boxer Muhammad Ali.

Henri Cartier-Bresson and The Decisive Moment

"The Decisive Moment" - This term is perhaps Cartier-Bresson's greatest legacy that influenced modern photography as we see it today. In the early 20th century a German camera manufacturer created a portable camera that was light, compact, and quiet which allowed the photographer previously unseen creative freedom. One of the most notable points of the camera is that the viewing hole was on the very left of the camera, whereas commonly most single reflex cameras had the viewfinder in the centre. This is notable because it left the left eye free to look about and take in the scene as it unfolded, giving the photographer unprecedented views of his intended photo shot.

Cartier-Bresson was one of the first owners of this camera and he used it to kick-start modern photographic journalism. This photograph, taken in 1932 is considered the first and greatest picture of photojournalism:

The picture is notable because it had several key elements that were considered to foreshadow events in Europe that preceded it. The man jumping off of the palet into the large puddle was seen as an allegory to Europe as a whole "jumping into the void, as a year later the Nazi party had successfully gained power in Germany and kickstarted the events that lead to World War Two. Also, the broken hoop is interpreted as a broken wheel (a phrase meant to imply a serious and damaging occurence), a symbol of Europe's eventual descent into warfare.

The picture showed the world what could be achieved with cameras that was previously extremely difficult, as cameras were usually large and unwieldy and often the photograph had to be planned out moments before the picture was taken. This was important as it allowed photographs to be more natural and free flowing, capturing life as it was in its purest form.

The camera he used was a Leica L