Thomas Hoepker Analysis

Thomas Höpker Analysis

               http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/9/2/1314964814888/Young-people-chat-as-the--005.jpg - 27th September 2012

In the devastation that was 911 Thomas Höpker (76) managed to capture a group of Americans who ‘appear’ to relax while the twin towers were collapsing, but this is not the case. Don’t be fooled by the bright colours and relaxed feel to this image. The foreground of the image visually contradicts the terror in the background while the people seemingly relaxing in the sun are actually devastated about what has happened. Höpker callously decided not to ask them how they felt, leaving us ‘the audience’ to guess. Höpker also decided to withhold the publishing of this image until many years after the shocking event, why?

Maybe Höpker didn’t want to shun America, Visually shaming our ‘youth’ for not caring, there are many aspects of this image to take in, one aspect is the foreground, which gives us the feel of that relaxing Sunday afternoon by the sea, another being the ‘careless’ stance of the lady laying down. The image is visually deceiving, I’m sure if they had been closer to the event, the bike would not be propped against a wall, it would have been thrown to the ground, and the person laying back, giving the viewer a “I don’t care” stance would have been displaying signs of panic and stress.

Höpker foolishly decided to leave the image without a quote to caption how they were feeling about the event, so there was no way of us knowing the thoughts in their heads. He decided to leave it open for the viewer to distinguish, which given the bright colours and nature of the group, was a bad idea.

One of the subjects, who, sarcastically referred to themselves as  ”disaffected sunbathing youth” was angry at the nature of the photograph due to its false ‘claims’ to her feelings.

Another of the people Walter Sipster (far right) said that he and his girlfriend who were sunbathing were actually ‘"in a profound state of shock and disbelief".

The juxtaposition of the bright sunny morning and the deep shadows, suggests that the sun was almost at its best, while in the background is dulled which makes the picture seem ‘faked’ the juxtaposition between the foreground and the background gives the effect of two pictures edited together.

We associate the groups ‘summery’ clothes with a beautiful sunny autumn morning, this almost multiplies the shocking imagery in the background by showing how much of a surprise 911 was, it almost seems completely unexpected and it was.

 If you compare this image to other images of 911 there is a huge difference. Usually they would contain ‘disaster’ pictures, focusing on the death and destruction of the event, this picture however makes you almost overlook the background making the disaster become unnoticeable.

All the colour of the image is in the front of the picture, which draws the eye away from the terror in the background. The group almost give a happy vibe, contrasting against all the death and destruction unfolding in front of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hoepker - 20th september 2012