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 George Bernard Shaw with Hoppé, 1930 |
TypologiesTypologies, or the study of people of different ethnic “types” and cultures, was a popular amateur pursuit of the late 19th century. Underlying such examination was the presumption that the observing society was the norm and all “others” were the "exotics"; indeed this was the established view amongst most of the educated middle-to-upper class in 19th century London. One of the benefits that photography—and especially that of the newly available hand-held camera—brought to typological studies at that time was the ability to make instantaneous records of these “exotic” peoples. see gallery In 1916 George Bernard Shaw experimented on the subject of human typology with his play Pygmalion, a story about Eliza Doolittle, a London Cockney flower girl whose phonetics Professor Henry Higgins wagers he can retrain in language and social behavior in order to pass her off as a high society debutante. At the core of this experiment is the historic debate over how we become who we are—whether we are influenced more by nature or by the nurture of our socio-cultural environment. By the late teens Hoppé had spent over a decade making portrait photographs of Britain’s high society. Perhaps to challenge his skills in the spirit of Professor Higgins, Hoppé began making portraits of London’s street types. English charladies, maids, and market sellers were at first brought into his studio and photographed. Later he sought them on the street. He published these studies in two books: Taken From Life, with text by J.D. Beresford, 1922, and London Types: Taken from Life with texts W. Pett Ridge, 1926. Hoppé continued a lifelong interest in making portraits of the ordinary working man and woman in each of the diverse cultures he encountered. |
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