Douglas Hopkins - Biography

Biography

The son of Cleveland and Lillian Hopkins, Douglas Hopkins grew up in Alaska and Boston. As a young man, Hopkins worked as a ranch hand in Montana. In high school he spent a year in Europe studying German. He attended the University of California, San Diego where he majored in physics and German literature. He later attended MIT, where he became a senior staff member of the MIT Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences.

At MIT he designed and deployed a system for measuring the ballistics of volcano eruptions. From 1971 to 1973 he worked at several volcanic sites, including the Italian islands of Sicily and Stromboli, as well as Guatemala and Chile. Hopkins' interest in commercial photography began to emerge while taking personal close-hand photographs of volcanic eruptions.

In 1972 Hopkins completed an intensive program in teaching visual awareness with the reclusive Massachusetts Institute of Technology photography professor, Minor White, author of The Zone System Manual and colleague of Ansel Adams. With Dr. Kathleen Crane, Hopkins co-directed the science documentary film "Heat". The film, funded by the Charles Lindbergh Foundation, was about geothermal phenomena.

Hopkins pursued a twenty-year career in commercial photography that has included staff, freelance, and consulting work. He has worked for numerous fashion, beauty, travel, and general publications, and his photographs have appeared in posters, books, and on national television. During his early years, Hopkins was innovative in the use of computers for photography-related business purposes.

In the mid-1980s, at the beginning of the period known as perestroika, Hopkins travelled to Eastern Europe. At this time Hopkins became interested in fine fragrances and purchased the rights to the leading Soviet men’s cologne, Prastara. In 1989, Hopkins founded his own fragrance company.

In January 1999, while on the Internet, Hopkins met a Russian woman, Oksana Katsuro, and began conversing with her via email. At the time, Ms. Katsuro was living and working as a nuclear engineer in Obninsk, Russia. In August 1999, Ms. Katsuro moved to New York and on November 6 of that year, she and Hopkins were married. She obtained her PhD in fusion physics from Columbia University. They have one daughter.

Most recently, Hopkins has written a book, "Real Views", for amateur photographers that is scheduled to be released in 2011. Hopkins currently lives in New York City and continues to direct his fragrance company.