The German photographer Thomas Hoepker, who has died aged 88, was celebrated for his humanist approach in capturing the joys and travails of the human condition. Remembered for his iconic 1966 portraits of Muhammad Ali taken over a two-week period in Chicago, he is best known for his controversial image of five young people seemingly relaxing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn as the World Trade Center burns across the East River on 11 September 2001.
Hoepker initially rejected the photograph because he felt it was taken too far from Ground Zero. Years later, when reviewing his work, he realised that the distance of time had imbued the distance within the image with powerful symbolism.
