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Rip Hopkins English. Born in 1972 in Sheffield. Lives in Paris. Rip Hopkins is always seeking new areas for experimentation. During his studies at the Ecole nationale supérieure de Création industrielle de Paris, he devoted his time to photograph and documentary films with Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders). For more than ten years, he took an interest in endangered demographics and marginalized peoples throughout the world. On the border between documentary photography and artistic expression, his work has been extensively exhibited and published. Fittingly, he says he “chose to develop in the artistic milieu, while revealing a documentarian approach to real contexts”. Today, Rip Hopkins is once again seeking spaces for expression ; this time closer to home. The images he creates give an unusual view of our society. He concentrates with great finesse on the practice of colour, and passes with total freedom from landscapes to scenery or portraits. While working for the press, institutions, and advertising, he has developed personal projects exploring the limits, possibilities, and surprises of photography. His work is included in international private and public collections. Represented by Gallery Le Réverbère. 
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Portfolio
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Portraits
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Stories
 | Another Country - The British in France (2010) Rip Hopkins’ 68 portraits provide a record that is both personal and objective, showing the real and imaginary world of British expats in France.
The photographs reveal aspects of British identity which is embedded within a culture of imagination and relates intimately to all the arts. In the past this has only been suggested, but rarely seen. |
 | Descendants of the French Revolution's beheaded (2009) Following the French Revolution, France was governed by a regime with a minimal toleration for deviation. Sensitive to the smallest threats to this newly installed government, it oftentimes executed individuals innocent of the crimes of which they were accused. It was founded on force and repression, characteristics which would give two periods of French history their name: “The Terror.” Between the summer of 1793 and 1794, the Terror reached its height, permitting the worst atrocities and violence.
In order to save time, witnesses would not be heard and the accused had very little time to defend themselves before the judges. The law of Prairial 22nd, Year II (June 10, 1794) reduced... |
 | Domestic Violence (2009) Domestic violence has a particularity in that it does not exist as such until it has been exposed in the public sphere: at the police station, to some close relatives, or when its consequences leave the private sphere.
Nowadays, this kind of violence, long-time denied by society, is recognized and studied by the World Health Organization. |
 | Fashion (2009) Haute couture and acrobatics mix to give this series an aerial aspect.
Rip Hopkins gives models and their outfits, a grace that sublimate them.
His photography can’t be confined to studio works or to fashion world but
become a strong aesthetic proposition.
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 | Marithé & François Girbaud (2008) Rip Hopkins has photographed the advertising campaign of the spring / summer 2008 collection of Marithé & François Girbaud.
In the living room of a town house, a family is having a row...without ripping the clothes of the brand. The opposition realised this way, between an “ancien regime” setting and the latest fashion trends, creates an atmosphere under pressure. |
 | Romanian Rip (Timisoara) (2008) Timisoara is the town from where started the Romanian revolution in december 1989. Twenty years later, it enters, with its country, in the european community. Two groups live together in this town : those from before and those from after the 1989 revolution. Those who were over twenty-five in 1989 had difficulties to adapt to capitalism. The younger live fully this new system. To show the two faces of this society, I have photographed Timisoara’s life machine : industry, commerce, authority, leisure, family. The caption on each photograph indicates the age of the people, some of whom were witnesses of the revolution, witnesses of the truth.
Because the true story is still uncertain. In... |
 | Lawyers of mighties, France (2008) Rip Hopkins propose us a portraits' galerie of the lawyers of mighties. At the duty of the great decision-makers of our world, those law men open their office's doors and accept to be directed in a space where secrets of their profession are. |
 | Rip La France, 2008 (2008) “Rip La France” is a style exercise. Each picture is taken and constructed in a way of a cinematographic work.
Visual angles and lenses are the same used in Sergio Leone’s films.
Each place, in this work, is important for France good running.
I dressed up according to the place and its activity.
People who are in the picture, don’t necessary know that I was dressed up.
And it’s me who made every single picture with the help of a purple distant cable release. |
 | Cooking alchemists (2007) This work is the fruit of the encounter between the Cook Pierre Gagnaire and the chemist Hervé This over the written work of Nicolas Bonnefons, Louis XIV's servant.
With Hervé, we've transcribed thanks to photography the phenomenons and the process of creation of taste.
Then Pierre Gagnaire took each picture to create a meal which I have photographed on the Zuber's fabrics from Nicolas Bonnefons time.
We've played with nature, sciences, history to praise cookery. |
 | Fashion week in Paris (2007) All that happens in the haute couture collections of Autumn/Winter 2008 presented this summer.
At the Orangery of Versailles, Dior shows scenes of masters and courtesans from the court of Louis XIV. In the Palais du Tokyo, Christian Lacroix mixes folklore, painting and theatre in a cocktail of Art Nouveau. As for Jean Paul Gaultier, a mixture of the lustre of Indian Courts with the quirks of scottish dress.
With each designer the fashion machine runs smoothly.
It all takes place in four stages. At the begining there is calm and the models are made up. The better known ones arrive late, some accompanied by a mother or an agent while the unknown ones sit quietly; there is an established... |
 | Anonymous Paris (2005) In France a photographer has to have written autorisation from the person photographed to publish his image. Without this the photographer can be sued for damages : A man and a woman were photographed together in Parisian street at 10 o’clock in the morning. Following publication the man’s wife discovers that he has a mistress and his employer sees that he wasn’t at work that day. He is fired and his wife files for divorce. He then sues the photographer. If this man had taken the trouble to put a mask on that day he would have had a lot less trouble. |
 | Home & Away, Uzbekistan (2002) Uzbekistan is a Soviet invention. Before the Russian Revolution of 1917, Uzbeks usually identified themselves ethnically as either nomad or sart (settled), as Turk or Persian, as simply Muslim or by their clan. Later separate nationalities were identified by Soviet scholars as ordered by Stalin. Distinct, carefully crafted traditions were formulated and parceled out to each of these nationalities, mostly to prevent any pan-Islamic or pan-Turkic tendencies.
Soviet authorities openly considered Uzbekistan as being a black hole into which they could conveniently dump entire populations considered as being a potential danger to the Republic. The Slavs and other non-Central Asian groups reached... |
 | Tadjikistan weaving (2001) I've been taking photographs since I was ten years old. Photography from the start was something magical for me, transferring reality onto paper with my own hands. It gradually became a record of time, then a tool for describing my version of reality to others. It was also a key whereby an image could jog my memory bringing back the situation in which I took the photograph. Eventually it became a way of explaining my presence and a means of gaining access.
I'm interested in people and photography is an act that incites curiosity. It facilitates communication and the relationships that ensue. The images that I took were at first solitary, then they became a series, then later a body of... |
 | Strange Days, Czech Republic (2000) Usti nad Labem is an industrial town situated in the north of the Czech Republic against the German border. The town suddenly found itself put on the map when the town's local authorities built a three metre high concrete wall around the roma ghetto so as to protect the "honest people" from the "antisocial" ones. According to the town's mayor, the aim was not to separate the two populations but to bring together the "Whites" living in their pavilions on one side of Maticni street and to unite the sixty odd roma families living in the two high rise buildings on the other.
"This "Wall of Shame" is not only a symbol but it is a clear demonstration of czech society's xenophobia. In a country... |
Books
 | Another Country Another Country is the first book of photographs devoted to the British in France. Rip Hopkins' 68 portraits provide a record that is both personal and objective, showing the real and imaginary world of British expats in France. Having himself abandoned the UK, Rip Hopkins re-exa- mines his roots and his passionate relationship with France. Antony Mair, a British settler in the Dordogne considers what it means for him and others to be expatriates, while Pauline de La Boulaye, a French national sets out her view of the British, the photographer and the present time. These different accounts raise questions of identity and of belonging, in the context of a society adapting to globalisation. Distur- bing and surreal, Rip Hopkins' photographs resonate at the deepest levels of our consciousness. Text by: Antony Mair, Pauline de La Boulaye et Rip Hopkins Publisher: Filigranes Editions (2010) 128 pages Size: 23x31 cm ISBN :2350461912 
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 | Alchimistes aux fourneaux Les auteurs discutent de la modernité des Délices de la campagne de Nicolas de Bonnefons, considéré comme un ouvrage de référence par les grands chefs. Tandis qu'Hervé This explique les phénomène physiques et chimiques qui s'opèrent lors de toute préparation culinaire, Pierre Gagnaire explore ce que le valet de chambre de Louis XIV avait découvert au XVIIe siècle. Text by: Pierre Gagnaire, Hervé This Publisher: Flammarion (2007) 206 pages Size: 24x31 cm ISBN :2082015343
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 | Clee Hill and other sculptures Objet d'édition rare, limité à 65 exemplaires numérotés, Clee Hill and other sculptures fait suite à l'exposition en plein air de 9 sculptures monumentales du célèbre sculpteur Stephen Cox dans le Shropshire en Grande-Bretagne. Text by: Bill Hopkins, Stephen Cox Publisher: Bill Hopkins (2006) 50 pages Size: 74x52,5 cm |
 | Déplacés Déplacés sont les peuples qui vivent en Ouzbékistan et que Rip Hopkins, photographe de l'Agence Vu, a souhaité montrer ici. Invention soviétique, l'Ouzbékistan rassemble des communautés aux racines et parcours mêlés : Allemands, Polonais, Grecs, Russes, Coréens, Tatars, parmi d'autres, déportés pour beaucoup par le régime stalinien. Par le truchement de portraits et de mises en situation, 99 photographies reconstituent l'itinéraire de ces " non-Ouzbeks ", qui émigrent aujourd'hui vers leur pays d'origine. Text by: Mathias Gavarry, Gabriel Bauret Publisher: Textuel (2004) 99 pages ISBN :2845971281
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 | Tadjikistan Tissages Rip Hopkins a passé plusieurs mois au Tadjikistan où il a parcouru treize mille kilomètres à pied. À cheval ou en camion. Trop souvent on ne connaît de cet Etat que sa production d'héroïne et la guerre civile qui y fait rage depuis l'indépendance, il y a dix ans. C'est à n'en pas douter la plus petite et la plus pauvre des républiques d'Asie centrale. La difficulté d'accès, l'insécurité, d'incessants conflits interethniques y rendent tout déplacement délicat. Publisher: Actes Sud (2002) 91 pages ISBN :2742739777
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 | Nimulé Ce travail de reportage en panoramique noir et blanc nous transporte dans ce pays dont on ne parle pas souvent. A l’opposé de toute dérive documentaire, la vision de Rip Hopkins se tourne avec une grande humanité vers une population qui, malgré tout, continue à vivre. Text by: Christian Caujolle Publisher: Filigranes (1997) Size: 18x13,5 cm ISBN :2-910682-39-0
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Awards
2007 - Ladurée Award, Paris
2004 - FIACRE Grant
2003 - SCAM Award
2002 - HSBC Award, Paris
2001 - Foundation CCF Award for the photography
2000 - The Foundation Hachette Grant, Paris
1998 - Kodak Award of young photo-reporter
1998 - World Press Masterclass Award, Rotterdam
1997 - Mosaïque Grant, Luxembourg
1997 - “Monographies” Award, Paris
1997 - The Observer Hodge Award
1996 - Ilford Award
1994 - Ilford Award
Exhibitions
 | Another country (Ribérac) From 2010-07-02 to 2010-08-29  More information... |
 | Photo Levallois - Romanian Rip (Levallois) From 2008-11-17 to 2008-12-06 More information... |
 | Viewpoint (Lyon) From 2008-09-20 to 2008-11-22 More information... |
 | Riga's Circus, Noorderlicht International Photofestival (Leeuwarden) From 2008-09-07 to 2008-10-26 The 15th Edition of The Noorderlicht International Photofestival is the first show ever to present a comprehensive narrative of photography from the former East bloc. The exhibition shows many photographers who are now forgotten but in their time succeeded in finding their space to work independent of the utopian regime. Rip Hopkins shows his serie named "Riga's Circus". That's the name of a circus built in 1888 and unchanged since. During the Soviet Period, the circus was an emblematic symbol of a socialist brave new world. More information... |
 | Alchimists at the furnace (Paris) From 2008-06-17 to 2008-06-22 More information... |
 | Humain, très humain. (Bordeaux) From 2008-04-11 to 2008-08-17 More information... |
Corporate
Biography
Biographie de Rip HopkinsPrix et bourses 2007 Ladurée prize, Paris 2003 SCAM prize (mention spéciale), Paris 2002 FIACRE scholarship, Paris 2002 HSBC Award, Paris 2000 Hachette Award, Paris 1998 World Press Masterclass, Rotterdam 1997 Kodak Award for young photoreporter, Perpignan 1997 Observer Hodge Award, London 1996 Ilford of the Black & White jury award, Paris Expositions 2008 Photo Levallois, Hôtel de Ville 2008 Cité de l'Architecture 2008 Biennale de la photographie, Liège 2008 Musée d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux (collective) 2008 Cité de la Villette, Paris 2007 Musée d'Orsay, Paris 2007 Galerie Le Réverbère, Lyon 2007 Galerie Fraich'attitude, Paris 2007 Centre Nationale de l'Audiovisuel, Luxembourg (collective) 2007 Rencontres d'Arles (collective) 2006 Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris 2006 Artcurial, Paris (collective) 2006 Galerie du cinéma MK2 Bibliothéque, Paris (collective) 2006 Parc de Seaux, Paris (collective) 2006 Galerie du Carré Amelot, La Rochelle Parutions Outdoor Outlaws, Io Donna Des idée pour sauver le PS, Le Monde 2 Alchimistes aux fourneaux, Libération Porftolio Alchimistes aux fourneaux, Le Monde 2 Paris anonyme, Libération Portraits avocats des Puissants, Le Monde 2 Première ville Santé en France, Télégraph Magazine Portfolio Alchimistes aux fourneaux, Epsilon Bibliographie 2007 Alchimistes aux fourneaux, Flammarion, France 2007 Fabrique De l'Europe, Editions Filigranes, France (group publication) 2006 Clee hill & other sculptures, Stoner Press, GB 2006 Photographies contemporaines – points de vue, Editions Textuel, France 2006 Décade, Éditions Filigranes, France 2006 Vu à Orsay, Musée d'Orsay / Panini, France (group publication) 2006 Agence VU, Photo Poche / Actes Sud, France (group publication) 2006 VU à Paris, Panini Books, France (group publication) 2004 Déplacés, Editions Textuel, France Corporate ETDE Marithé & Francois Girbaud Musée d’Orsay Musée Jacquemard-André Orange SMA BTP Contact us... |
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