Review

Emil
Otto
Hoppé

PEOPLE, THINGS, HUMAN WORKS. Photographs 1925–1929

Emil Otto Hoppé (1878–1972) was born in Munich to Anglo-German parents. In 1907 he gave up his job as a bank clerk in London in favour of photography. Even before the First World War he acquired a high reputation as a portrait photographer and connoisseur of the English photographic scene.

In Weimar Republic Germany he became known above all for his many highly regarded photo book publications. He contributed the volumes on England and the USA to the Orbis Terrarum series. At his Berlin studio he created portraits of numerous film stars for the UFA group, among them Brigitte Helm and Lilian Harvey. Further photo books appeared in the following decades, including one on London, another on small German towns and the volume ‘Deutsche Arbeit. Bilder vom Wiederaufstieg Deutschlands’ [‘German Work – Pictures of the Renascence of Germany’]. This paean to the fascination of industry, Berlin’s industry above all, marks Hoppé’s transition to photographic Modernism.

The exhibition shows 65 vintage prints from ‘Deutsche Arbeit’ and 15 selected portraits.