Dennis Hopper, the outlaw of American film, died in May 2010. For the general public, however, he will forever remain that beatnik cavalier sitting astride his Harley Davidson in the road movie Easy Rider. An hymn to liberty and smokin’ joints, hair in the wind. An American dream that influenced an entire generation.
This voluminous work, featuring pictures from 1961 – 1967 (edited by gallerist Tony Shafrazi), is Dennis Hopper’s behind the scenes vision. Because the actor, director and artist never went far without his camera. Scenes of ordinary life, movie sets, actor’s portraits or old friends, unknowns, comical or tragic scenes, he was forever drawing his weapon. Paparazzi one day, expressionist artist the next, he traced a complete and impressive portrait of a decade that was witness to considerable changes in American society.
Dennis Hopper knew and frequented Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Roy Lichtenstein, the young Warhol, Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, photographer William Claxton (numerous pictures of a young Hopper). He took pictures of Ike and Tina Turner, Martin Luther King, and California’s “Peace and Love” groups from the sixties, but the essence of these raw black and white prints can be most felt in his pictures of the ordinary America he met on the road, along the highways (from the book’s chapter entitled On the Road). An extraordinary setting for soul seekers looking for their way. Dennis Hopper’s vision, that of an eternal vagabond, captures this raw truth in his resolutely smutty images lacking depth of field. The book’s core. Impressive.
Dennis Hopper’s trajectory, his scandalous life, is entirely summarized in this photographic work. Far from being blinded by his burgeoning stardom, he gave priority to experience, even the most extreme: acid, white powder, hallucinogenic mushrooms burned his youth, while this friend of James Dean and Paul Newman was becoming a Hollywood star. The first section of this book is devoted to this period.
Another fascinating chapter focuses on the photographer, the artist skilled in abstract expressionism (early 1960’s). Or the chapter called “Inside Hollywood” where the actor photographer brings us into the studios, on the set. Superb documents about the March for Civil Rights. Thanks to a remarkable selection, this book delivers the essence of what one could consider a work of art.
An intense and uncompromising photographic work, an invaulable witness about an artist, comedian and underestimated director, and about the time period. Nevertheless, all of these treasures nearly disappeared. Walter Hoops describes how these pictures were saved in the delirious “The Taos Incident”. We’ll let you discover this astonishing, dramatic, and delicious story. Like Dennis Hopper, that’s how his friends described the man they often visited in his Taos, New Mexico home.
Paul Alessandrini
BOOK
Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967
Dennis Hopper, Victor Bockris, Walter Hopps, Jessica Hundley, Tony Shafrazi
Taschen
Multilingual edition: German, English, French
Bound, 28 × 37.4 cm. 544 pages.
€ 49.99
http://www.taschen.com
This article is from the archives of Le Journal de la Photographie.
