TY - JOUR
T1 - E. O. Hoppé's London Types
AU - Stokoe, Brian
PY - 2011/7/1
Y1 - 2011/7/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - photography
KW - working classes
KW - trades and occupations
UR - http://openurl.ingenta.com/content/xref?genre=article&issn=0305-8034&volume=36&issue=2&spage=161
U2 - 10.1179/174963211X13034705699261
DO - 10.1179/174963211X13034705699261
M3 - Article
VL - 36
SP - 161
EP - 185
JO - The London Journal
JF - The London Journal
SN - 0305-8034
IS - 2
ER -