Douglas Hopkins started work as a ranch hand in Montana, after growing up in Alaska and Boston. He attended the University of California, San Diego. He completed an intensive program in teaching visual awareness with the reclusive Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, Minor White, author of The Zone System Manual. As a staff member of the MIT Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Hopkins designed and deployed a system for the close-hand measurement of volcanic eruptions. Surviving the hazards of on-site deployment, he embarked on a twenty-year commercial photography career, first as staff photographer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, then free-lancing for fashion, beauty, and general publications, including W, WWD, Vogue, Connoisseur, Harvard Magazine, Rolling Stone, Mademoiselle, Elle, Barrons, Cosmopolitan, New York Times, Revlon, Clairol, and L’Oreal. He received prominent coverage in photography publications such as Graphis, Popular Photography (cover), American Photographer (cover), and Photo District News. He remained active in the field through exhibits, design awards, articles, lecturing, teaching at The New School, and served as a consultant to clients such as Polaroid and Fuji. His photographs appeared in fashion magazines, posters, books, and national television. He co-directed “Heat”, a Charles Lindbergh Foundation funded science documentary film on geothermal energy. In 1989, he founded and directs Douglas Hopkins & Co., an international atelier perfumery, creators of luxury fragrances. He is raising his young daughter, a dancing committment of the heart.