• 
  1/13
  Tilly Losch, 1928
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)
• 
  2/13
  Bell Ringers at St Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London, 1935
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)
• 
  3/13
  Making Waxworks at Madame Tussaud’s, London, 1935
  (Modern gelatin-silver print)
• 
  4/13
  United We Stand Jacket 2001, 2009
• 
  5/13
  Ezra Pound, 1918
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)
• 
  6/13
  London Type, “Highly Respectable”, c.1912
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)
• 
  7/13
  Roedean School, Percussion Band, Brighton, Sussex, 1935
  (Modern gelatin-silver print)
• 
  8/13
  Physical Education, Kings School, Canterbury, Kent, c.1939
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)
• 
  9/13
  Passengers on a bus, London, “The Long Trail from City to Suburbia,” 1945
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)
• 
  10/13
  New York Type, 1921
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)
• 
  11/13
  “Flora,” Flower lady, Piccadilly Circus, London Type, 1921
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)
• 
  12/13
  The “Pearlies,” Master Dennis Simmons, London, 1922
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)
• 
  13/13
  A Big Fish Story, West Looe, Cornwall, 1932
  (Vintage gelatin-silver print)

Curated by Phillip Prodger

In the 1920s and 30s, Emil Otto Hoppé (British, German born, 1878-1972) was one of the most sought-after photographers in the world. His studio in South Kensington was a magnet for the rich and famous, from dancers to film stars and from royalty to leading writers and artists. His own fame rocketed in 1922 with the publication of his sensational Book of Fair Women, a compilation of photographs of women he considered the most beautiful on earth. But Hoppé was not content to be just a celebrity photographer. He was fascinated by questions of class, race, and social mobility. With his special access to high society, he used his camera to try to understand what made people successful in the first place.

Increasingly in the 1930s Hoppé left the studio to make photographs of British street life. These pictures, sometimes funny and often poignant, explored ideas about class and typology that paralleled the writings of his friend, the playwright George Bernard Shaw. Using a hidden camera, Hoppé photographed people at the other end of the social spectrum: sleeping rough, living in hostels, and barely getting by. He also immersed himself in London’s growing immigrant communities. As waves of immigration from Europe, Asia, and Africa turned Britain into a multicultural nation, Hoppé was making its collective portrait. His photographs show a nation with one foot planted firmly in the past, and another reaching toward the future.

This exhibition brings both sides of Hoppé’s work together for the first time. It features stunning portraits of figures such as King George V and the Queen Mother, Vaslav Nijinsky, Margot Fonteyn, Dorothy Gish, Marion Davies, Anna May Wong, Paul Robeson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,Thomas Hardy, A.A. Milne, and Benito Mussolini. It also includes works Hoppé made of London "types," from flower sellers to Pearlies.

Society, Studio, and Street marks the rediscovery of Hoppé as a pivotal figure in Edwardian art. Drawn from the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the E.O. Hoppé Archive in Pasadena, California, this exhibition brings together the best known prints of each photograph. After decades laying dormant in a London picture library, where they were virtually unknown, these prints are now being made accessible to the public for the first time.

For more information and images visit the E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection website.

View Marketing Booklet (PDF)

Number of Works: 148 photographs, 10 cased objects, vintage magazine articles, books, cartoons

Frame Sizes: 14 x 11 inches (35 x 28 cm) to 20 x 16 inches (50 x 40 cm)

Space Requirements: 400 linear feet (120 linear meters)

Tour Dates: Summer 2011 through 2014

Participation Fee: Contact CATE for information

Support Materials: Exhibition catalogue

REVIEWS AND NEWS

Quesabesde, Eduardo Parra, March 21, 2012
La Nueva España, Joaquín Rábago, March 20, 2012
El Mundo, Elena Vozmediano, March 16, 2012
Paper Blog, Carol, March 16, 2012
Ambos Mundos, Alejandro Sanz Peinado, March 14, 2012
El Mundo, Alfredo Merino, March 9, 2012
Diario ABC, Antonio Astorga, March 7, 2012
Arte en la Red, March 7, 2012
RITMOS XXI, March 7, 2012
El Correo Gallego, March 6, 2012
El País, Ángeles García, March 6, 2012
ARN Digital, Luis Cáceres, March 6, 2012
La Lettre de la Phorographie, Bernard Perrine, March 2012
Bloomberg Online, Martin Gayford, April 17, 2011
The Spectator, Nicola McCartney, March 10, 2011
Royal Photographic Society Journal (book essay excerpt), March 2011
Financial Times, Francis Hodgson, February 25, 2011
History Today, Sheila Corr, February 18, 2011
Time Out London, Nina Kaplan, February 17, 2011
Artdaily, February 17, 2011
Culture 24, Laura Burgess, February 17, 2011
Who's Jack, February 17, 2011
L'ItaloEuropeo, David Franchi, February 16, 2011
Small Aperture, Daniela Bowker, February 16, 2011
AnOther Mag, Lucia Davies, February 16, 2011
BBC Radio 4, John Wilson, February 16, 2011
BBC Radio 3, Anne McElvoy, February 15, 2011
The Telegraph, Lucy Davies, February 15, 2011
The Observer, Laura Cumming, February 13, 2011
The Guardian, Maev Kennedy, October 07, 2010
The Telegraph, October 07, 2010
The Independent, Robert Dex, October 07, 2010
Wales Online, Daniel Fisher, October 08, 2010