Thomas Hoepker was born in Germany
1936 in Munich. He went to university at
Gottingen where he studied art history and archaeology and from 1960 – 1963 he
worked as a photographer for Münchner Illustrierte and Kristall, he went on to
become a photographic journalist and a cameraman for German TV. Then in 1978 he followed his wife to America due
to her work and became director of photography for American Geo.
Magnum first started to
distribute Hoepkers photos in 1964; in 2003 he became magnum photos president
until 2006.
This Photo was taken by Thomas
Hoepker on the 11/9/2001. He was driving
on the other side of the river from New York and saw the tragedy and he saw a
group of people sitting there casually and looking like they do not care about
what is happening behind them. The reason
this was such a controversial photo was because it made out to seem as if they
were callous and showed no empathy towards what is happening. The photo was released and allowed to be
shown a few years ago, it is taken more as a photo of history. And taken as an example of Americans attitude
and ability to move on…
