Thomas Hoepker. © René Burri / Magnum Photos

Remembering Thomas Hoepker (1936-2024)

Gifted a camera by his grandfather as a boy, Thomas Hoepker had an interest in photography from the age of 14. Born in Munich in 1936, he studied art history and archaeology at university and worked as a photographer for Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall between 1960 and 1963. His job at Kristall took him reporting from all over the world. One of Hoepker’s early, major photo stories for them was made on a road trip across the USA and inspired by Robert Frank’s The Americans.

Billboard and passengers on bus. New York City, USA. 1963. © Thomas Hoepker / Magnum Photos

Old woman in a snowstorm. Hamburg, Germany. 1954. © Thomas Hoepker / Magnum Photos

Hoepker joined Stern magazine as a photojournalist in 1964, the same year that Magnum began to distribute his archive. He worked as cameraman and producer of documentary films for German television in 1972, and from 1974 collaborated with his second 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 took one of the most memorable images of a singularly defining event in the history of the 21st century: a shot of young people relaxing on 9/11 as the World Trade Center burns behind them, which has come to symbolize much of the allegorical power of photography. Hoepker published it five years after the event - he had initially decided to hold back on sharing the image, wishing to respect the solemnity of the atmosphere immediately following the attacks, but it was the subject of much comment when he agreed to its use in a book about photographs of 9/11 in 2006. “Mr. Hoepker’s photo is prescient as well as important - a snapshot of history soon to come,” wrote Frank Rich in The New York Times.

Young people relax during their lunch break along the East River while a huge plume of smoke rises from Lower Manhattan after the attack on the World Trade Center. Brooklyn, New York, USA. Septembe (…)

Recruits are made to stand close to each other after having their heads shaved on the first day. Parris Island, South Carolina, USA. 1970. © Thomas Hoepker / Magnum Photos

Muhammad Ali, (formerly Cassius Clay), boxing world heavy weight champion in Chicago, jumping from a bridge over the Chicago River. Chicago, USA. 1966. © Thomas Hoepker / Magnum Photos

In the late 1960s, Elliott Erwitt invited Hoepker to become part of Magnum as a member of the collective. Though Hoepker had been an admirer of Erwitt’s work, he declined, as he was engaged in work with Stern. It was to be around two decades later, in 1989 that Hoepker would finally leave Stern and take on the opportunity to join Magnum, where he was to become president in 2003. On the subject of running an agency with his fellow photographers, he said, “It’s not easy, because we have to deal with big egos of big photographers. But it’s worth it.”

Hoepker made a beloved series on a sports and pop-cultural titan, Muhammad Ali. Across two extraordinary visits to Ali in London and Chicago, Hoepker and his then-wife Eva Windmoeller followed the boxer as he prepared for a fight and trained on his home turf. Hoepker’s portrait of the fighter jumping atop a bridge on the Chicago River became iconic, but was the result of spontaneous improvisation between the two, rather than any premeditation. Hoepker reflected on Ali’s playful character: “Ali could be widely alert, sharp and observant, he loved to saunter down the streets, to banter with real people. He melted away when he saw children. They adored him, he hugged them, he did some shadow-boxing and then he took sudden naps in the backseat of his chauffeured Lincoln sedan.”

Muhammad Ali, boxing world heavy weight champion showing off his right fist. Chicago, USA. 1966. © Thomas Hoepker / Magnum Photos