DENNIS HOPPER | SOMETIMES IN A CAREER, MOMENTS ARE ENOUGH

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“There are moments that I’ve had some real brilliance, you know.

But I think they are moments.  And sometimes, in a career, moments are enough.

I never felt I played the great part.  I never felt that I directed the great movie.

And I can’t say that it’s anybody’s fault but my own.”

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–Dennis Hopper

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Dennis Hopper, Natalie Wood, and James Dean on the set of Rebel Without a Cause.

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“In the 50s, when me and Natalie Wood and James Dean and Nick Adams and Tony Perkins (Anthony Perkins) suddenly arrived… God, it was a whole group of us that sort of felt like that earlier group – the John Barrymores, Errol Flynns, Sinatras, Clifts – were a little farther out than we were… So we tried to emulate that lifestyle. For instance, once Natalie and I decided we`d have an orgy. And Natalie says ‘O.K., but we have to have a champagne bath.’  So we filled the bathtub full of champagne.  Natalie takes off her clothes, sits down in the champagne, starts screaming. We take her to the emergency hospital.  That was our orgy, you understand?” –Dennis Hopper

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Dennis Hopper (at 18 yrs old) on the set of Rebel Without a Cause

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“I am just a middle-class farm boy from Dodge City and my grandparents were wheat farmers.  I thought painting, acting, directing and photography was all part of being an artist.  I have made my money that way.  And I have had some fun.  It’s not been a bad life.”  –Dennis Hopper

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Young Dennis Hopper waiting for his lunch in a Hollywood bistro –Frank Worth, 1955.

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“Like all artists I want to cheat death a little and contribute something to the next generation.”  –Dennis Hopper

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“Self-Portrait at Porn Stand” –Dennis Hopper, 1962.

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If it weren’t for the efforts of curatot Walter Hopps, who knows if the brilliant photographic works of Dennis Hopper would have survived to be with us today.  It was the mid-1970s, and Hopps was at Hopper’s place in Taos, New Mexico and got a  first-hand taste of the artist’s insanity.  Hopper was in a drug-fueled dementia, as he riddled the adobe walls of his home with machine gun fire.  Walter Hopps recalls–

“I knew things were really terrible out there,” Hopps recalled. “So on my next visit I told Dennis, ‘I’ve got to have the negatives and contact sheets of all your photographs secured in the museum, where they’ll be safe and we can sort things out.’ They were strewn about and scattered all over the place. We gathered them up as best we could, and packed them in a couple of boxes. Materials secured, I got in the car and made my getaway.”

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“Biker Couple”  –Dennis Hopper, 1961

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“Dennis Hopper in front of a Dr Pepper sign,” –Robert Walker Jr., 1965

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Andy Warhol with flower  –Dennis Hopper, 1963

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A young Dennis Hopper, circa 1950s

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Paul Newman –Dennis Hopper, 1964

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Dennis Hopper (check: Wrangler western shirt)

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Jane Fonda, bow and arrow, Malibu  –Dennis Hopper, 1965

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Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in a scene from Easy Rider, 1969. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

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Ike and Tina Turner  –Dennis Hopper, 1965

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Dennis Hoopers mug shot, Taos, New Mexico, 1975.

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Robert Rauschenberg with his tongue stamped “Wedding Souvenir, Claes Oldenburg,” –Dennis Hopper, 1966.

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Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider, 1969.

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“Double Standard,” –Dennis Hopper, 1961

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Dennis Hopper and crew shooting on the set of Easy Rider

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“Ed Ruscha”  –Dennis Hopper, 1964

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Dennis Hopper, 1971

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“Tuesday Weld”  –Dennis Hopper, 1965

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Dennis Hopper and posse promoting Easy Rider after the release, 1969

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“Irving Blum and Peggy Moffitt”  –Dennis Hopper, 1964

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Dennis Hopper

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More on Hopper’s photography here & here

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