Thurston Hopkins

Thurston Hopkins and his wife Grace Robertson were both photographers on Picture Post in the years after the war when the magazine  was helping create a new sense of national identity.
The young Hopkins had originally gone to Brighton College of Art, and had worked for a publisher making decorative frames for pictures of Edward VIII until he abdicated, leaving Hopkins without a job! Hopkins joined the PhotoPressAgency on the advice of his employers, who told him he could make more money with photography.
He was in the RAF Photographic Unit during the war, and managed to get a job with Picture Post in 1950. One of his first essays for them was Cats of London (1951) - many cats had been made homeless by the Blitz and were living and breeding in the bombsites.
Later he set up a studio in Chiswick, and taught photography at the Guildhall School of Art. Since retiring he leaves the photography to Grace Roberts, nowadays mainly painting.