User:Lou Bopp/sandbox

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Lou Bopp (December 22, 1963 born Louis Henry Bopp III) is an American self-taught, freelance, award winning on-location still photographer and director. He resides in New York City and St. Louis, MO.

Bopp has the unique privilege of having one of his photographs selected for a United States Postal Service First-Class Forever stamp. The photo is of the notable blues musician, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, a living person. The USPS typically features deceased people.

Bopp has been been prominently featured for his photography in the The Huffington Post, NBC News, CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Slate, CBS News, Photo District News, The CBS Sunday Morning Show, Esquire, Workbook, Wonderful Machine, DP Review to name just a few.

He has photographer President Clinton, Lance Armstrong, Dan Rather, General Schwartzkopf, Madonna, David Letterman, Howard Stern, Larry King and many other notable people, including many CEO’s and leaders in industry.

Bopp has 2 published books: Hidden History of Mississippi Blues (History Press) and Mississippi Juke Joint Confidential: House Parties, Hustlers & the Blues Life (Arcadia Publishing), both authored by Roger Stolle.

He has also worked on a number of documentary movies, TV shows and broadcast commercials, in the role of director, still photographer and director of photography. The documentaries include We Juke Up In Here, Moonshine & Mojo Hands, A Jamie Redford movie, Happening and Remember D-Day with Dan Rather & General Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf in Vietnam - A Soldier Returns and CBS Reports: D-Day. For years, he worked on the Larry King Live TV show in New York City as a still photographer. He directed award winning broadcast commercials for Mississippi Tourism.

In July 2020 The CBS Sunday Morning Show highlighted his “Portraits of Mandated Isolation” project, a project that was related to the COVID pandemic.

He is a recipient of a Communication Arts Advertising Award of Excellence.

Bopp specializes in creating and capturing genuine & authentic imagery depicting lifestyle, corporate, industrial and pet brand imagery for agency and corporate clients.

Bopp has travelled to 60+ countries.

Bopp once shot on three continents in a single day. Starting out in Istanbul, across the Bosphorus on the Asian side, then photographed in Milan at the The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and finally in New York City on Wall Street.

He is one of a handful of people to have climbed to the very top of the Empire State Building to document the changing of the lightbulb, twice.

He photographed Dan Rather and General Schwartzkopf on the remote and rarely visited, closed Japanese military island of Iwo Jima.

Since 2008, Bopp has made regular trips to Mississippi to record the now elderly musicians who have made important contributions to the classic American genre of music called the Blues. To date, he has made compelling portraits of around 70 of these artists. He has also recorded the culture of the “juke joints,” roadhouses and neighborhood taverns that have supported the music. Bopp’s photographs are compelling portraits of the people and places of Mississippi Blues music, but they are more than documents. His keen sensitivity to color and composition has resulted in a body of work that is both art and document. Bopp writes: “Their stories seem embedded in their skin, scent, hands, stares; they are draped in history. Many were living in poverty, dollar to dollar, I offered honorariums to all. Along the way I also tried to record as much of the overall culture as I could, mostly in juke joints. Not surprisingly, the plight of the delta bluesman and the juke joint have a similar trajectory. At the end of the day, I was in Mississippi to record the end of an era, the last remnants and to memorialize this genre and those who created it……as it passes us by.” Blues music is an American treasure and Mississippi is one of its original sources. The generation of musicians that Bopp has sought to document played a critical role in the development of other genres of music and has influenced many musicians internationally.

1996 Behind the scenes coverage of flight 800 crash for TWA and photographed President William Jefferson Clinton.

Bopp's photos have been exhibited at the following institutions and galleries, as well as many private collections.

Publications

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Early life and education

Bopp was born in St. Louis MO. He is an only child to Gail Rosenthal Bopp and Louis Henry Bopp II. His parents were divorced when he was one year old. He has two half sisters on his father's side. His father owned and operated a multi generational funeral home, Bopp Chapel in St. Louis. His mother was prominent in the fashion industry, living and working in St. Louis, St. Petersburg, FL, Miami, New York City, Washington DC and St. Louis. Bopp lived in St. Louis and St. Petersburg, FL with his mother until 5th grade, then lived with his grandparents on his mother's side, Grace and Gilbert Rosenthal, in Ladue, MO, a suburb of St. Louis. He attended Ladue High School in Ladue, MO.

Bopp attended Southeast Missouri in Cape Girardeau, MO and the University of Missouri in St. Louis.

Career

In November of 1989 Bopp was in Berlin when the Berlin wall game down and made a very notable image that would dictate the trajectory of his professional life, and thus his personal life as well.

After the success in Berlin, he worked as a freelancer for the Associated Press, UPI, St. Louis Sun in St. Louis

In 1992 Bopp was awarded the prestigious internship at Sports Illustrated magazine. He moved to New York City on New Years Day 1992.

After the internship, he assisted many notable photographers, including full time assistant to Magnum photographer, Burt Glinn.

Beginning in 1993 he started to work in the advertising and corporate world of photography for clients such as ebay, Mississippi Tourism, Marley Coffee, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, AMD, Deutsche Bank, Intel, Nike, AMEX, American Airlines, GE, Disney World, Time Warner, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, J. Walter Thomas, People Magazine, AG Edwards, CDW, Y & R, Fleishman-Hillard, McCann-Erickson, FutureBrand, Deutsche LA and more.

Personal life

Bopp has one daughter, 15 years old. He is a member of The National Arts Club in New York City.