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13.
An original b/w photograph by John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins of the Royal Albert Hall poetry reading’s main participants assembled for a press conference on the steps of the Albert Memorial, June 5, 1965.
Vintage silver gelatin print. 25.9x28.3cm.
One of only two prints SIGNED by each member of the group: poets Adrian Mitchell, Anselm Hollo, Michael Horovitz, Ernst Jandl, Harry Fainlight, and Allen Ginsberg; Barbara Rubin (filmmaker and Ginsberg’s occasional girlfriend); and the reading’s organisers, Dan Richter (whose wife Jill put up the money), John Esam (poet, assistant director to Peter Whitehead and LSD evangelist), Alexander Trocchi (who compered the event), and Trocchi’s assistant, Marcus Field.
Hoppy’s photograph, taken during the press conference a week before the landmark reading, and portraying the international gathering of poets who came together in London, is one of the event’s defining images.
Only two prints were signed by each member of the assembled group: this was Hoppy’s own copy, with his contemporary studio stamp to verso, along with his signature in pencil.
Two old top corner drawing pin holes; faint soiling and light creasing; two small indentations near right edge; overall, Very Good, with the signatures in black and blue inks unfaded.
Provenance: John 'Hoppy' Hopkins.
Price:
£4,500.00
