
Rip
Rip Hopkins

biographY

British photographer, member of Agence VU’ since 1996, represented by the galleries Le Réverbère (Lyon) and LT2, lives and works mainly in Brussels (Belgium).
A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI) in Paris, Rip Hopkins begins his photographic career in collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières, for whom he realizes photographic reports and documentaries about endangered populations around the world for almost 10 years. At the same time, he carries out more personal documentary projects, notably on Gypsies in Europe, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, for which he receives numerous distinctions (Ilford Prize, Kodak Prize for young photoreporter, HSBC Prize, Fiacre Grant, Scam Prize, etc.).
In constant search for challenges, Rip Hopkins is looking for new spaces of expression closer to him, first in France and then in Belgium. With ordinary and a priori banal subjects as a starting point, he explores with humour and poetry the possibilities and surprises of photography: he questions the limits of social representations, plays with staging and sometimes even immerse himself into them to plunge in the reality of others and reduce the distance between the photographer and his models.
Renewing the form of visual investigations of reality, his atypical style is at the point where documentary photography meets artistic expression, and is distinguished by a great sensitivity to colours, materials, and everything that makes up a “decor” that he invests in such a way as to place the human being – model and spectator – at the heart of his work. He thus shows galleries of mischievous and playful portraits either of the descendants of the beheaded of the French Revolution (« La Révolution en héritage »), or of the Mansonnians and their particular link to the horse (« Chevaleresque »), of the British settled in the Périgord (« Another Country »), of the contemporary Belgian aristocracy (« Belgian Blue Blood »), of the Canadian identity (« Canada Canada », at the invitation of the French Embassy and on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Canada)…
Author of 11 monographs, Rip Hopkins is regularly exhibited. His works are part of prestigious public and private collections such as those of the Guerlain Foundation (France), the HSBC Foundation (France), LaSalle Bank (USA), the Musée de lʼElysée (Lausanne), the Musée d’Orsay (Paris), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Centre National d’audiovisuel (Luxembourg), the Fonds régional dʼart contemporain dʼIle de France and the Fonds national dʼart contemporain (France) .
SEries


Canada Canada, 2017

Belgian Blue Blood, 2016

Portraits de Familles (Fnac Studio), 2012

Horsey Horsey, 2012

Extra-ordinary, 2012

Sept fois à terre, huit fois debout, 2011

An age of iron and concrete, 2010

Another Country – the British in France, 2010

The Revolution as a Legacy, 2009

Mode, 2009

Rip la France, 2008

Romanian Rip (Timisoara), 2008

Cooking Alchemists, 2007

Succeed or Die, 2007

Haute Couture, 2007

Muses d’Orsay, 2006

Too Late!, 2006

Essays, 2005

Anonymous Paris, 2005

Bukhara Babe, 2004

Rigas Circus, 2003

Otkritki, 2003

Home & Away, Uzbekistan, 2002

Tadjikistan, tissage, 2001

Strange Days, Czech Republic, 2000

Bishop’s Madness, 1999

Outlaws, 1999

Dallas (Romania), 1998

Amazon Burning, 1997

After Paradise, 1997

500 coups, 1996

Nimulé, 1995

Odyssey, 2022

Canada Canada, 2017

Belgian Blue Blood, 2016

Portraits de Familles (Fnac Studio), 2012

Horsey Horsey, 2012

Extra-ordinary, 2012

Sept fois à terre, huit fois debout, 2011

An age of iron and concrete, 2010

Another Country – the British in France, 2010

The Revolution as a Legacy, 2009

Mode, 2009

Rip la France, 2008

Romanian Rip (Timisoara), 2008

Cooking Alchemists, 2007

Succeed or Die, 2007

Haute Couture, 2007

Muses d’Orsay, 2006

Too Late!, 2006

Essays, 2005

Anonymous Paris, 2005

Bukhara Babe, 2004

Rigas Circus, 2003

Otkritki, 2003

Home & Away, Uzbekistan, 2002

Tadjikistan, tissage, 2001

Strange Days, Czech Republic, 2000

Bishop’s Madness, 1999

Outlaws, 1999

Dallas (Romania), 1998

Amazon Burning, 1997

After Paradise, 1997

500 coups, 1996

Nimulé, 1995

Odyssey, 2022

Canada Canada, 2017

Belgian Blue Blood, 2016

Portraits de Familles (Fnac Studio), 2012

Horsey Horsey, 2012

Extra-ordinary, 2012

Sept fois à terre, huit fois debout, 2011

An age of iron and concrete, 2010

Another Country – the British in France, 2010

The Revolution as a Legacy, 2009

Mode, 2009

Rip la France, 2008

Romanian Rip (Timisoara), 2008

Cooking Alchemists, 2007

Succeed or Die, 2007

Haute Couture, 2007

Muses d’Orsay, 2006

Too Late!, 2006

Essays, 2005

Anonymous Paris, 2005

Bukhara Babe, 2004

Rigas Circus, 2003

Otkritki, 2003

Home & Away, Uzbekistan, 2002

Tadjikistan, tissage, 2001

Strange Days, Czech Republic, 2000

Bishop’s Madness, 1999

Outlaws, 1999

Dallas (Romania), 1998

Amazon Burning, 1997

After Paradise, 1997

500 coups, 1996

Nimulé, 1995
MultimEdia

Meet Me at The Gare, 2006

Meet Me at The Gare, 2006

Meet Me at The Gare, 2006
Interviews
Regardez voir
France Inter
—
Interview by Brigitte Patient, 2018
France inter welcomes the photographer Rip Hopkins in the show Regarder Voir. Portrait of a photographer with such a singular sense of humour.
Interview de Rip Hopkins – Expostion photographique
Abbaye Royale de l’Épau
—
2018
Interview conducted on the occasion of his exhibition “Belgian Blue Blood” at the Royal Abbey of Epau. Rip Hopkins then goes back over the reasons that pushed him to work on the Belgian aristocracy.
Le Fnac Studio de Rip Hopkins
La Fnac
—
Interview by la Fnac, 2012
La Fnac welcomes the photographer Rip Hopkins as part of the “Fnac Studio” operation. He met and photographed several families who entered into the spirit of the game by letting themselves be staged.
Chevalresque – Portrait de Rip Hopkins
Filigranes
—
Film directed by Patrick Le Bescont, 2012
Through this series of portraits, Rip Hopkins reveals how the inhabitants of Maisons-Laffitte, a French city historically linked to horses, perceive and take on the imagery of the horse in their fantasy. At the North West of Paris, close to the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, stands a city that has been haunted by the presence of horse since the end of the 18th century. Its racetrack has the longest straight line of Europe. Men and horses live together.
Rip Hopkins Interview
Processus Photo
—
Interview by Sandrine Fafet, 2010
Processus photo dedicates an interview to the photographer Rip Hopkins, after the release of his book Another Country.
Exhibitions
Odyssée 2022
—
L’Œil Urbain, Corbeil-Essonnes (FRANCE)
—
From April 1 to May 22, 2022
Another Country
—
L’Œil Urbain, Corbeil-Essonnes (FRANCE)
—
From April 5 to May 19, 2019
Canada Canada
—
Galerie d’Art d’Ottawa, Ottawa (CANADA)
—
From April 28 to June 11, 2017
BOOKS

Canada Canada

Belgian Blue Blood

Chevaleresque

Sept fois à terre, huit fois debout

Un âge de Fer et de Béton

Another Country

Alchimistes aux fourneaux

Clee Hill and Other Sculptures

Déplacés

Tadjikistan tissages

Nimulé

Canada Canada

Belgian Blue Blood

Chevaleresque

Sept fois à terre, huit fois debout

Un âge de Fer et de Béton

Another Country

Alchimistes aux fourneaux

Clee Hill and Other Sculptures

Déplacés

Tadjikistan tissages

Nimulé

Canada Canada

Belgian Blue Blood

Chevaleresque

Sept fois à terre, huit fois debout

Un âge de Fer et de Béton

Another Country

Alchimistes aux fourneaux

Clee Hill and Other Sculptures

Déplacés

Tadjikistan tissages

Nimulé
AWARDS

Ladurée Award
For his series “Alchimistes aux fourneaux (Cooking Alchemists)”
2007

HSBC Award
For his series “Tadjikistan, tissage”
2002

Fondation Jean-Luc Lagardère Grant
For his project” Tadjikistan ethnic group”
2000

Observer Hodge Award
For his series “Tadjikistan, tissage”
1997

Monographies Award
For his book “Nimulé” published by Filigranes
1997

Kodak Young Photoreporter Award
For his report “500 coups”
1997

Black & White Ilford Jury’s Award
For his series “500 coups”
1996

Black & White Ilford Jury’s Award
For his series “Nimulé”
1994