Can Can
Photograph
1958 (made)
1958 (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 | |
Title | Can Can (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | gelatin silver print |
Brief description | 20thC; Hopkins Thurston, Can Can, London, 1958 |
Physical description | Can Can dancers in Soho club |
Dimensions |
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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 | 12-1976 |
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Record created | June 30, 2009 |
Record URL |
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