This series of photographic works by John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins date from 1960 to 1966 and capture the vibrancy of the emerging counter-culture in Britain, which was expressed through music, protest and art.
Included are iconic images of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithful, Martin Luther King, jazz greats Roland Kirk, Thelonius Monk and others. A few images capture the historic poetry convention at The Albert Hall in 1965, another set show CND marches and anti-racist demonstrations illustrating the power of popular protest.
Hopkins (born 1937) is a British photographer, video-maker and political activist, who was a highly influential figure in the UK underground movement in London. In 1965 he helped set up the ‘London Free School’ in Notting Hill. This in turn led to the establishment of the Notting Hill carnival. In 1966 Hopkins co-founded the influential ‘International Times’, a radical underground newspaper and Europe’s first ‘alternative’ publication. The voice of a generation, it was first edited by Glaswegian poet and playwright Tom McGrath (1940 – 2009). Hopkins remained a member of its editorial board and a major contributor. He also helped set up the legendary UFO Club with Joe Boyd, with Pink Floyd as the resident band. Now in his 70’s, there have only been 3 major surveys of his photography work – in 2000 at the Photographers’ Gallery, London, in June 2009 at Idea Generation, also in London, and in late 2009 at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow. Curator Malcolm Dickson says “Hoppy was at the centre of a spiders web of connections, the threads of which still vibrate in the present”.
(John Hoppy Hopkins @ Dunoon)
Dunoon Burgh Hall
195 Argyll Street, Dunoon, Argyll PA23 7DD