Those looking to find their favorite Thomas Hoepker photograph need a lot of time and decisiveness. Almost every photograph is a small miracle. For over 60 years, he has photographed all over the world. He photographs people and animals, cities and landscapes, catastrophes and current events. Hoepker is a seeker to this day. This hasn‘t changed despite the 86 year old photojournalist and former head of the renowned Magnum agency getting diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2017. Just the opposite. The diagnosis prompts him to take one last trip together with his wife Christine Kruchen to meet old friends and relatives and go to important places and make one last photo reportage. In a rented mobile home, the couple set off from their New York home in the middle of the pandemic in order to reach San Francisco across a meandering route. Filmmaker Nahuel Lopez accompanied them and assembled a warm-hearted documentary that you shouldn‘t miss out on if you‘re interested in photography. Hoepker, who was born in Munich in 1936 and started photographing at 16 after his grandfather gave him an old 9x12 plate camera (“that was magic for me“) is a highly intelligent, alert and incredibly sympathetic protagonist who is enthusiastic about everything and everyone and comments on it with a trenchant photograph. Along with being an artist portrait which highlights many of Heopker‘s most famous photographs, Lopez‘s film also shows a fascinating image of America.

Pamela Jahn (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy