E. O. Hoppé's London Types

Stokoe, Brian (2011) E. O. Hoppé's London Types. The London Journal, 36 (2). pp. 161-185. ISSN 0305-8034

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

Photographers have always been fascinated by social extremes, and in the work of E. O. Hoppé one finds a remarkable contrast between portraits drawn from London's high society and those made of London characters and social 'types'. Hoppé's photographs register something of the tensions of a society caught up in the condition of modernity, in rapid and far-reaching processes of demographic and cultural change, and he is a perceptive observer of the ascendancy (or decline) of London trades and professions in the interwar period. Examined in the light of observations by Susan Sontag, however, I argue that Hoppé's portraits of the metropolitan working classes are pervaded by a superficially benign, but ultimately paternalistic, class tourism. Here, I locate Hoppé's photographs within contemporary discourses of class, and situate his work within the broader history of typological representations.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	photography, working classes, trades and occupations
Subjects:	V300 History by topic W600 Cinematics and Photography
Department:	Faculties > Arts, Design and Social Sciences > Arts
Related URLs:	Publisher
Depositing User:	EPrint Services
Date Deposited:	28 Sep 2011 14:42
Last Modified:	31 Jul 2021 08:40
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/800

Downloads