„MitMenschen – Of Hippies, Nuns, and Acrobats“

The exhibition "MitMenschen - Of Hippies, Nuns, and Acrobats" showcases an important part of Thomas Hoepker's photographic body of work. At the center is the human being, who, with their diverse everyday life, conveys a variety of situations and events, and whose visualized stories sometimes read like a book. The mostly unknown images were "rediscovered" in his archive last summer.

As a photojournalist, Thomas Hoepker has traveled around the world, documenting misery, poverty, and famines, but also the beauty of nature and human existence. Hoepker's interest constantly lies with people and social issues. He is a humanist, whose photographic approach is often associated with "concerned photography", social documentary photography. His always vigilant and sensitive gaze follows politically and socially motivated images, in which a good dose of humor is allowed to have its place. Yet, he never exposes people; he approaches them with the necessary respect. Chance serves as an impetus in his photographic work, capturing reality that often encapsulates irony and wit.

The presented images mostly depict everyday scenes, funny situations or individuals, landscapes, quirky architectures, or simply graphic situations. Among them, a bridal couple in Portugal posing with their wedding party for a photo, but the happiness of the man and woman is nowhere to be found on their faces. Or a nun peeking out from the side of a doorway with a billboard of Klosterfrau hanging over her head. Another motif shows an information board of a lending library in a window, with puzzle books and pulp novels attached with clothespins.

The list of situational comedy that elicits a chuckle is long. One thing the images make clear is that they show a photographer behind the camera who knows how to capture images of society with a thoughtful composition, stylistically humorous, subtle, and relatively unexcited. These works are just a few historical visual documents among many that lie dormant in Hoepker's archive, waiting to be examined on the light table once again.

"Our task is to pick out attractive moments from the chaos of everyday life." - Thomas Hoepker