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Soho Club

Photograph
1959 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Thurston Hopkins excelled at exposing the underbelly of British society. After serving as an RAF photographer during the Second World War he worked as a photojournalist for Picture Post from 1950 until 1957. He was born in south London in 1913 and passed away in 2014, at the age of 101. A small but representative group of his pictures entered the V&A collections in 1976. The sombre undertone of his photographs was not always appreciated. His reportage on the Liverpool slums (1956) was never published because of its grim political message. Possibly for similar reasons, the magazine failed to include the image titled Battersea (1950), held in the V&A collection, in his first big feature Cats of London (1951). The image captures a prowling cat silhouetted in front of a shady and sexually charged meeting between a man and woman in a damp street. Hopkin’s Soho Club (1959), also held by the Museum, showing what is presumably a striptease, tests the limits of his film in the dark indoor conditions, resulting in a blurred but evocative and energetic image of London’s nightlife.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleSoho Club (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
gelatin silver print
Brief description
20thC; Hopkins Thurston, Soho Club, 1959
Physical description
Blurred black and white photograph of two dancers in a Soho club, with the silhouettes of the audience in the foreground
Dimensions
  • Image height: 295mm
  • Image width: 227mm
  • Paper height: 303mm
  • Paper width: 237mm
Gallery label
Photo London: Beneath the Surface Somerset House May 20 - August 24, 2015 Thurston Hopkins (1913–2014) Clockwise from top left: In the Mall, 1952; Soho Club, 1959; Can Can, 1958; Battersea, 1950 After serving as an RAF photographer during the Second World War, Hopkins worked as a photojournalist for Picture Post magazine from 1950 to 1957. His street scenes and pictures of whirling night life in London capture the fast pace and energy of the city. Though buoyant, his photographs are often shadowy and expose the underbelly of British society. Gelatin silver prints V&A Museum nos. Ph.6, 20, 12, 23–1976(20-5-2015)
Summary
Thurston Hopkins excelled at exposing the underbelly of British society. After serving as an RAF photographer during the Second World War he worked as a photojournalist for Picture Post from 1950 until 1957. He was born in south London in 1913 and passed away in 2014, at the age of 101. A small but representative group of his pictures entered the V&A collections in 1976. The sombre undertone of his photographs was not always appreciated. His reportage on the Liverpool slums (1956) was never published because of its grim political message. Possibly for similar reasons, the magazine failed to include the image titled Battersea (1950), held in the V&A collection, in his first big feature Cats of London (1951). The image captures a prowling cat silhouetted in front of a shady and sexually charged meeting between a man and woman in a damp street. Hopkin’s Soho Club (1959), also held by the Museum, showing what is presumably a striptease, tests the limits of his film in the dark indoor conditions, resulting in a blurred but evocative and energetic image of London’s nightlife.
Collection
Accession number
20-1976

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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