Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967.

Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967. Photographs by Dennis Hopper. Contributors: Tony Shafrazi, Walter Hopps, Jessica Hundley. Taschen, 2009. 546pp., illustrated throughout, 33 x 44 cm (hardcover + box).

I was deeply saddened to hear about the death of actor, photographer and icon Dennis Hopper on Saturday after a battle with cancer.

There are many things to be said about him as an inspiration, artist, actor, director and cultural icon, but I thought I would show his work as a photographer with this book 'Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967'.

As Dennis Hopper said himself: "I was doing something that I thought could have some impact someday. In many ways, it's really these photographs that kept me going creatively."


The book is described as follow:

"During the 1960s, Dennis Hopper carried a camera everywhere - on film sets and locations, at parties, in diners, bars and galleries, driving on freeways and walking on political marches.

He photographed movie idols, pop stars, writers, artists, girlfriends, and complete strangers. Along the way he captured some of the most intriguing moments of his generation with a keen and intuitive eye.

A reluctant icon at the epicenter of that decade’s cultural upheaval, Hopper documented the likes of Tina Turner in the studio, Andy Warhol at his first West Coast show, Paul Newman on set, and Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

In many ways this work is photography as film, a poignant narrative expressed through a series of stark images - early shots of Tijuana bullfights, LA happenings and urban street scenes show an experimental freedom that would translate into the vivid cinematic imagery of Easy Rider and beyond.


From a selection of photographs compiled by Hopper and gallerist Tony Shafrazi - more than a third of them previously unpublished - this extensive volume distills the essence of Hopper's brilliantly prodigious photographic career.

Also included are introductory essays by Tony Shafrazi and legendary West Coast art pioneer Walter Hopps, and an extensive biography by journalist Jessica Hundley.

With excerpts from Victor Bockris's interviews of Hopper's famous subjects, friends, and family, this volume is an unprecedented exploration of the life and mind of one of America’s most fascinating personalities."


You can flick through the entire - and really truly amazing book - here at Taschen, read more about the book here, or view this film about and behind the book.