On Saturday May 29th, 2010, legendary actor Dennis Hopper passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer. An American icon best known for both directing and starring in the counterculture classic, Easy Rider, Hopper appeared in some of the most seminal films of our time - Rebel Without a Cause, Giant, Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, and many others. But what many people might not know about Dennis Hopper was that he was also an extremely talented and gifted photographer whose ferocious appetite for taking pictures began back in the 1960s.

If it was not for the fame he later received as an actor, Hopper may well have become known as one of America's most important still photographers.

The story goes that in '61, while studying acting at the legendary Actors' Studio in New York, Hopper was given his first camera by his first wife Brooke Hayward for his 25th birthday. From that moment on, Hopper's Nikon camera almost never left his side. Soon after getting the camera, Hopper headed out to Hollywood and while waiting for his acting career to gain momentum, he began documenting what was around him. It was an important time in the Los Angeles art scene and Hopper began shooting portraits of those who had become his friends, including the artist Ed Ruscha.

Hopper's most famous photo, Double Standard (pictured), was shot in '61, the same year he arrived in Los Angeles. Taken from the front seat of a convertible at the intersection of Melrose, Doheny, and Santa Monica Boulevards, Hopper's black-and-white image has over time become an iconic representation of Los Angeles car culture.

Earlier this year Jeffrey Deitch, the incoming director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, announced that his first show at MOCA would be a survey of Dennis Hopper's photography and artworks.

On July 11th, DENNIS HOPPER DOUBLE STANDARD opened at MOCA and is being widely regarded as one of the most "important," and, of course, Character Approved, art shows of the year.

[Image: MOCA]