Hoppy was a British photographer, video-maker, journalist, researcher and political activist, prominent in counter cultural circles from the late 1960s onwards. He got a degree in physics and mathematics at Cambridge University, and worked briefly as a nuclear physicist, but soon became interested in working as a photographer, mainly in the music and underground scenes of the time. He and Barry Miles co-founded the influential magazine International Times (IT) and he set up the UFO Club with Joe Boyd, with Pink Floyd as the resident band.

In 1967 Hoppy was sentenced to nine months in prison for keeping premises for possession of cannabis, stimulating a "Free Hoppy" movement. In the late 1960s he was an ‘early adopter’ of portable video technology, initiating and working with a number of groups and organisations, including the Arts Lab, TVX, IRAT and Fantasy Factory. In the 1970s Hopkins was researching the social uses of video for UNESCO, the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Home Office and others, and edited the Journal of the Centre for Advanced TV Studies. He died at the age of 77 on 30 January 2015.