It was not until serving in the RAF Photographic Unit during the Second World War in Italy and the Middle East from 1940 that he acquired a more portable 35 mm format Leica which apart from occasional use of a Rolleiflex, he continued to prefer for the rest of his career.
Its photographers, including Bert Hardy, Kurt Hutton, Humphrey Spender, Leonard McCombe, John Chillingworth[4] and Bill Brandt, went out with the writers on stories together, working as colleagues, not competitors.
One of his first essays was his popular 'Cats of London' (24 February 1951),[8] a series made whilst working as a freelancer on other stories during which he would find stray cats living in the many bomb sites and back alleys.
[12] With the closure of Picture Post in 1957, Thurston Hopkins conducted business as one of London's more successful advertising photographers from his studio in Chiswick[13] before taking up teaching at the Guildford School of Art, a major British course in photography under Ifor Thomas.
[20] Photographs by salaried staff of Picture Post were retained in copyright by the Hulton empire; and when the magazine closed, the archive was sold to the British Broadcasting Corporation, and then to Brian Deutsch.