THEREALBenHopper.com/blog is ON again. Please go there for new posts.
I will not post on here anymore.
I’ve finally managed to fix the problem I had on my main blog.
All activity now goes back to:
THEREALBenHopper.com/blog
Flyposted WickED Circus prints in Hackney Wick
Super excited to have some of the WickED Circus prints flyposted in the street!
This is the first time I ever flyposted prints like that. It’s defiantly a beginning of something bigger.
You can find these on the walls of Hackney Wick, Literarrly around the corner from Hackney Wick overground.
The exact address is: 27 White Post La, London E9 5EN (outside “Zamo Household Products Ltd”).
Special thanks to Terry from Zamo who let me put them on his wall. Another thank you goes to Staples who helped sponsor the production of these prints!
More EXCITING NEWS: WickED Circus will be a part of a group exhibition Stour Space (Hackney Wick) are having during the Olympics (July-Sept 2012). The show will be curated by Art Buffet and will have local artists giving centre stage to the unique creative talent that thrives in the Olympic boroughs.
Here’s few snaps from my phone cam:
Interview for UNDR RPBLC MGZN
Here’s an interview I’ve done for UNDR RPBLC Magazine for their April / May 2012 issue (#16).
For original interview & rest of magazine go here.
Big Ben!
Wehey!
How are you?
I’m tired after a long night on a little job, but I’m now snuggling in my gf’s bed, so all’s good.
Who are you really?
When I was about 17 I realized I wanted to be an artist. I’ve been doing some experiments with it lately. I’m a 29-year-old guy who grew up in Israel and moved to London when he was 26.
How’s London?
London’s great. Too cold TBH. I wish I could do more outdoor shoots, but anyone I photograph (without clothes) will freeze to death after 10 minutes here. Other than that, London is treating me well.
Care for a spot of tea?
I prefer coffee, but it starts getting to me… I think. After 15+ years my body starts to go EW after 2 coffees a day.
How long have you been shooting?
Officially/obsessively/using a DSLR since the summer of 2007.
Why did you select these photos for your feature?
They are selections from 2 exhibitions I now have in London; WickED Circus @ Jacksons Lane and Circle at Circa @ artsdepot.
What initially drew you to photography?
I was working in a trade company specializing in photography equipment back in Israel. I was managing the imports, and after almost 3.5 years I got fed up and quit. Having had access to cost prices I bought a Nikon DSLR and it came naturally, so I’ve kept on going with it.
Where has photography taken you?
All over the place. I’ve gotten to know some of the most amazing people and places – not sure I could have ever otherwise, but a camera (luckily) opens a lot of doors. I’m also getting more and more commissions that include traveling abroad so that’s great. I LOVE traveling.
What have you done with the fake ‘Ben Hoppers’ running around perpetrating?
Really I am Ofer Benin, which is like Robert Zimmerman for Bob Dylan.
Ben Hopper is the same thing – just an easier name for non-Israeli people to pronounce. Benin Ofer = Ben Hopper. It started as a joke years ago, but after using it on Myspace and FB it emerged into reality.
When I decided to go with Ben Hopper instead of Ofer I had to get a proper domain online, benhopper.com was taken and the best alternative I could come up with was therealbenhopper.com. I realized if I’m not a ‘real’ Ben Hopper, then fuck it, I might as well just go all the way. It also sums up my approach to life; do not take things too seriously. People think that it’s my business name, ‘the real ben hopper’ – it’s a website name 
Where are you going?
Anywhere where I’ll be happy.
What would you do for a Klondike Bar?
I just googled that – so I guess not that much – although it kind of looks interesting!
Any sentiments towards Photoshop?
Yes, I’d be really careful though, you don’t want it to look like a ModelMayhem or an advertisement. Otherwise, I wish I had a full time retoucher. CAN’T STAND sitting in front of a monitor, it kills me.
What’s your camera of choice?
At the moment my main is a Canon 5D Mark II. I’d like to get a medium format, something with blasting 60MP would be nice.
How does working with video compare to photography for you?
I’m hoping to do more video in the near future. I prefer directing rather than operating the camera when it comes to video. I want to focus more on the creative, as opposed to the technological side.
What would you like to do more of (generally speaking)?
I’d like to travel more, go snowboarding and hit up festivals all over.
I’d basically love to do all shit I’m doing now on a larger international scale.
Of all your work, do you have a favorite?
I don’t really know. I was trying to find one going through my website yesterday, but I couldn’t.
It seems as if I can’t see anything with ‘iconic/classic/timeless’ characteristics in my portfolio. Not yet.
Maybe in 5-10 years…
When you get up, what do you do to calm yourself down?
Masturbate.
When you get down, what do you do to bring yourself up?
Reminding myself that either; broken hearts are for assholes, or that our purpose in life is to be happy. Cheesy, I know, but it’s the goddamn truth!
Why?
Well, sometimes I do just cry all night, but don’t tell anyone I said that.
Why ask why?
Dude, I don’t know – but you just got a pretty heavy confession there so…
Where do you see your work heading?
Going back to what I want to do more of in general; on a larger international scale.
Who are your biggest influences?
All of my personal work is stuff I’m attracted to. This is influenced by a variety of things that are constantly changing on a daily basis.
Do you have any upcoming shows?
There are 3 exhibitions coming up at the moment. 2 solo and 1 group all in London. They are all about contemporary circus photography and a part of The Roundhouse CircusFest (a London theatre that dedicates all of April to contemporary circus shows):
13 March – 29 April/WickED Circus @ Jacksons Lane (solo),
28 March – 29 April/FEDEC’s Circle shows at Circa Festival 2011 @ artsdepot (solo),
28 March – 29 April/Social Circus @ Roundhouse (group).
More info on my Blog/FB/Twitter.
Have you had any professional training?
I was assisting 2-3 photographers for few months in Israel before I moved to London at the end of 2008. Nothing serious. No college. No Uni.
What do you want out of life?
My good friend Remco always says; “I don’t want to be right, I just want to be happy.”
Are you doing what you love?
I’m trying.
What’s next?
Sex. Then world domination.
Is there anything that I’ve missed?
Too many things, so little time. Let’s try another one in few months ;)
Any shout-outs?
See mum? I told you I shouldn’t have studied in school.
Interview on Yin&Yang Blog
Yin&Yang Blog interviewed me recently. You can read it all below (Read original post on yinnyang.co.uk)
A Chat With The Real Ben Hopper
If you have an interest in photography then you may have already heard of or seen work from Ben Hopper. Originally living in Israel, he’s a London based photographer and his work spans many styles. I met up with Ben for a chat recently, read the full interview below where he talks life, inspirations and upcoming projects!
Introduce yourself!
I’m Ben hopper and I’m a freelance photographer, living in London. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of photography around contemporary performing arts, burlesque dancers, and circus performance. It’s quite a big network so I’m really tied into that, but it’s starting to evolve into other visuals like film and interactive arts. That’s me in a nutshell at the moment.
Talk us through how you became Ben Hopper the photographer?
Well when I was 15 I started playing the guitar, by 18/19 I became pretty good. I would play anything from jazz to rock- taking private lessons. But then I had to join the army in Israel (my homeland) and so I didn’t have time to practice. After the army I started doing different kinds of jobs until I ended up working for a company dealing with imports and exports of photography equipment- one of the largest in Israel at the time. I was the PA to the CEO and it was a really intense full time+ business job. I did it for about 3.5 years till I was 25. It pretty much ruined me, it took all of my spare time, and I didn’t have a life! After 3.5 years I wanted to leave but my boss was adamant on making me stay as I became a key player in the company. But anyway I managed to leave and since I always liked photography, I thought I would just get myself a nice Nikon DSLR and started taking photos.One of my friends’ was also experimenting with photography at the time and we both had this goal of becoming fashion photographers. So we decided to pool our heads together and start out with wedding photography which would enable us to save some money and get some lighting equipment and get into fashion photography. We started a business together doing events which went really well up until we started to fall out. We were really good friends but when money got involved…it screwed up our relationship and business.I always wanted to leave Israel so as my photography started to pick up I decided to move to London and become a photographer here.
Must have been tough moving to whole new surroundings and not knowing anyone!
I’ve always been a big networking whore so by the time I got to London, some people had already known about me and liked my stuff plus I knew few people who lived here. That is where I stayed when I moved.
Who were some of your first clients when you came over?
The first job I did was 2 weeks after I arrived, I did an editorial for a digital magazine- i’m not sure if they are still around. It was called Supersweet We did a fashion editorial in Aldgate.
My London friend Sarah Jane, she introduced me to Torture Garden and that was a big turning point for me at the time and influenced where I took my photography. It was their Halloween party and I remember thinking ‘wow I have to photograph this party’. So I came back and did the Christmas party and since then I’ve had a good relationship with the people at Torture Garden and that whole scene behind the club.
Also, I was introduced to a girl called Mayka Finkelstein Amrami, she’s a really cool artist- a designer and an illustrator. She works at the Royal Opera doing all the costumes for the ballet- she did a video installation and wanted stills, so I did them for her. Couple weeks later we worked together again and produced some work which ended up in Kurv magazine.
Sounds like you did alright for yourself there! What were some of the challenges you faced as a freelance photographer?
Well honestly, the real challenge is just making sure I have enough money to pay bills… I usually prefer to do personal work but every now and then you have to branch out. I try to make money off my personal work by selling prints or getting them exhibited. So yes it’s just the challenge of making sure that you have enough work all the time.
What would you say has been your most successful project?
Definitely ‘Naked Girls with Masks’…well it got the most attention and quite obviously because it is literally naked girls…
Can you tell us a bit about the project and how it came about?
I did a photoshoot back in 2009 with a girl called Cat Chappell – had this idea to photograph her and her girlfriend standing next to each other holding hands, Cat was ok but her girlfriend wasn’t too comfortable so we ended up playing around with masks. Cat has a big tattoo on her back, so I got her to have her back to me wearing the mask back to front; I thought it would make a really cool photo. So later on I Met up with two guys who run Act Art and they wanted to me to submit something to their exhibition which was about censorship, so I showed them the photo I did with Cat and said I would do an entire exhibition based on that…they were happy with it! And that’s really how it happened.
What has been your favourite project?
I don’t really have a favourite but I did a project called ‘Nightlife’ which is a compilation of photos I have taken at parties over the last three years; mostly in alternative, gothic and burlesque clubs. At the time I was just having fun and meeting new people.
At the moment I’m working on one called ‘Natural Beauty‘ and this one is about beautiful women with long armpit hair- it has a lot of cultural saying and it’s about personal preferences. I also really enjoyed ‘Naked girls with Masks’.
So what’s on the horizon, any future projects?
Naked men with masks! Also other stuff with masks, might not all be nude though. Perhaps one will be a scene in a restaurant where everyone is naked and wearing masks.
You really have a thing for masks….
Haha! I just want to experiment with masks! There is another in the pipeline actually…without masks. I’ve been working on a project where I will get illustrators to take my photography and play around with it using their skills to create a whole new composition. That’s quite exciting for me because I don’t draw, illustrate or paint but I have always wanted to. I can do a bit of typography but I always wanted to know how to illustrate. So in a way it is a way for me to do that- I’ve been looking at illustrators from around the world so if anyone is interested…
Sounds interesting, maybe we’ll do some Yin&Yang x Ben Hopper pieces! You mentioned before that your work is “starting to evolve into other visuals like film and interactive arts”. Is this something you’ll be working on soon?
There will be short feature films and music video clips… that’s all I can say at the moment
Cool, we look forward! Tell us what you think makes a good photographer?
That’s a really difficult one! There are so many photographers and everyone has access to a camera- you need to do more than just technically take photos, you need to understand. I think you also need to be original, edgy and honest. Recently I decided that I am only going to photograph for myself and not think too much about what people will think- perhaps being controversial can be a good thing. As long as my work makes me happy. It’s also really important to know how to deal with clients- this shouldn’t be the way but you have to be quite business minded.
Any photographers out there that you like their work?
There are loads but these ones pop straight into my head, make sure you Look them up!
Manuel Vason
Tim Walker
Storm Thorgerson
Sarah Sitkin
Phillip Toledano
Sølve Sundsbø
So what advice can you give to anyone looking to become photographer?
The most important thing is to do things that you love…if you don’t want to photograph weddings, then don’t! Within reason though… bills are not going to pay themselves!
Thanks for the interview Ben, you’ve been great! Got any exhibitions coming up that we can pop down to?
My pleasure! Yes, there are 3 exhibitions coming up this month and April. 2 solo and 1 group, all in London. They are all contemporary circus photography and a part of The Roundhouse CircusFest (a London theatre that dedicates all April 2012 to contemporary circus shows)
13 March – 29 April / WickED Circus @ Jacksons Lane (solo)
Circle at Circa Exhibition @ artsdepot, 28 Mar – 29 Apr
Introducing Circle at Circa, A photographic exhibition from FEDEC’s Circle shows at Circa Festival 2011 (Auch, France), now premiering at artsdepot from 28 March to 29 April as a part of The Roundhouse’s CircusFest 2012.
(3) Laura Renic @ Circomedia (Bristol, UK)
(2) Leonardo Sivira, Baptiste Raffanel and Romain Verstraete @ Lomme (Lomme, France)
Right: (5) LJ Marles @ Circus Space (London, UK) / Left: (6) Guilhem Cauchois and Sarah Tessier @ National Circus School (Montreal, Canada)
(1) Jakob Beffa – Vonau @ Staatliche Artistenschule Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
(4) Jak Rees @ Circomedia (Bristol, UK)
Right: (7) Harm Van der Laan @ Codarts (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) / Center: (10) LJ Marles and Lucas Boutin @ Circus Space (London, UK) / Left: (11) Jakob Beffa – Vonau @ Staatliche Artistenschule Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
(12) Yohann Fradette-Trépanier @ National Circus School (Montreal, Canada)
Right: (13) Harm Van der Laan and Maartje Bonarius @ Codarts (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) / Left: (14) Maude Arseneault and Mikael Bruyère-L’Abbé @ National Circus School (Montreal, Canada)
(9) Jakob Beffa – Vonau @ Staatliche Artistenschule Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
(8) Marie Lebot-Ruel and Virginie Gerbeau @ Châtellerault (Châtellerault, France)
Circa Festival has been inviting Circle, an international showcase of up and coming circus artists to take part in the festival for the last five years. Through these Encounters, FEDEC (the European Federation of Professional Circus Schools) encourages exchanges between current and future circus artists. At this annual gathering, the work of 12 schools from the FEDEC network from Europe and beyond is shown through 20 – 30 minute original performances, created with their students during research and creation workshops.
Prints are available for purchase:
A5 (148.5x210mm) £25
A4 (210x297mm) £50
A3 (297x420mm) £95
16″x20″ (406.4x508mm) £130
A2 (420x594mm) £180
A1 (594x841mm) £345
A0 (841x1189mm) £545
All C-type prints, printed on Fuji Crystal Archive Matt paper.
Limited edition of 15, signed and numbered.
A0 (841x1189mm) signed paper black & white prints available at £20!
Payment can be made via Bank transfer to UK bank or PayPal.
Contact me for more details including full set of images for preview: info@THEREALBenHopper.com
The exhibition is FREE and will be on display from 28 March to 29 April.
Address:
5 Nether Street
Tally Ho Corner
North Finchley
London N12 0GA
Map / Directions on artsdepot.co.uk
A0 black & white paper prints made by and supported Staples
The space at artsdepot
Note: I’ve been having tech / server / database problems with my regular blog at therealbenhopper.com/blog/ over the last few weeks.
Please bear with me as I’m finding a solution for this.
Meanwhile you can stay updated with my work on FB / Twitter / Tumblr / Flickr (Twitter & FB = daily updates)
WickED Circus Exhibition @ Jacksons Lane, 13 Mar – 29 Apr
Introducing WickED Circus, a collection of photographs capturing Circus Space acrobats on rooftops made last December in London’s Hackney Wick, now premiering at Jacksons Lane.
The show is on display as a preview from 13 March – 28 March and continuing to display as a part of The Roundhouse’s CircusFest 2012 from 28th March - 29 April.
The pictures were taken as a part of a demonstration shoot with Mamiya Leaf’s 80 Mega Pixel Aptus-II 12. A separate post about the actual photoshoot including a behind the scenes video will be made soon.
Prints are available for purchase:
A5 (148.5x210mm) £25
A4 (210x297mm) £50
A3 (297x420mm) £95
16″x20″ (406.4x508mm) £130
A2 (420x594mm) £180
A1 (594x841mm) £345
A0 (841x1189mm) £545
All C-type prints, printed on Fuji Crystal Archive Matt paper.
Limited edition of 15, signed and numbered.
A0 (841x1189mm) signed paper black & white prints available at £20!
Payment can be made via Bank transfer to UK bank or PayPal.
Contact me for more details including full set of images for preview: info@THEREALBenHopper.com
The exhibition is FREE and will be on display from 13 March to 29 April.
Address:
269a Archway Road
London
N6 5AA
Map / Directions on jacksonslane.org.uk
Opening hours:
Monday Closed
Tuesday 10.00 – 22.00
Wednesday 10.00 – 22.30
Thursday 10.00 – 22.00
Friday 10.00 – 22.00
Saturday 10.00 – 23.00
Sunday 10.00 – 17.00
Pictures of the prints installed Jacksons Lane:
Credits:
Camera Leaf Aptus-II 12 (80 Mega Pixel) on Mamiya 645DF with a V-Grip Air vertical handgrip.
Lights Profoto‘s AcuteB2 heads powered by Pro-B3 1200 AirS and D1 Kit powered by a BatPac.
Acrobats Jonathan Finch, Billy George, Lj Marles, Lucas Boutin, Nathan Price, Isis Clegg-Vinell, Beren D’amico, Conor Neall & Louis Gift (thanks to Tim @ Circus Space).
Assistants Nick Redman, Richard Evans-Lacey
Prints A0 black & white paper prints made by and supported at Staples
More:
WickED Circus on jacksonslane.org.uk
WickED Circus on roundhouse.org.uk
Circle at Circa Exhibition @ artsdepot, 28 Mar – 29 Apr
WickED Circus & Circle at Circa previewed on londonist.com
Note: I’ve been having tech / server / database problems with my regular blog at therealbenhopper.com/blog/ over the last few weeks.
Please bear with me as I’m finding a solution for this.
Meanwhile you can stay updated with my work on FB / Twitter / Tumblr / Flickr (Twitter & FB = daily updates)
New Blog URL
Please go to my new blog at THEREALBenHopper.com/blog to see new pictures.
The blog here at benhopper.wordpress.com isn’t active anymore. Ben x
Hey guys!
Although this blog had more than 40,000 views(!!!) since July 2010, I am now going to post from my own domain.
Please go to my new blog at
http://THEREALBenHopper.com/blog
.
I will no longer write in here (http://benhopper.wordpress.com/)
Thank you!
Ben
