Magnum Contact Sheets
“Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.”
/Henri Cartier-Bresson/
Magnum Contact Sheets is a major new touring exhibition produced by Magnum Photos in collaboration with Forte di Bard, where the show was presented for the first time in June 2013 before touring worldwide. The show is taking the contact sheet as the basis for an exploration into the creative process behind some of the world’s most iconic photographs from the Magnum Photos agency.
In the early days of Magnum’s inception, founding member Henri Cartier-Bresson famously used contact sheets as a means of critiquing the younger members work. This exciting new exhibition will give audiences remarkable access and insight into the decision-making processes of many of Magnum’s famous members, through the inclusion of first-person accounts.
Magnum Contact Sheets sets out to illustrate the traditional role of the contact sheet within Magnum’s working archive, as the main source of reference for the picture agency’s editors.
Often compared to an artist’s sketchbook, the contact sheet is the photographer’s first look at what he or she has captured; a sense of walking alongside that photographer and seeing through their eyes. With the development of digital technologies and their huge impact on photographic production, this exploration of the analogue editing process sets out to both investigate and celebrate an approach that is becoming increasingly historic; an ‘epitaph’ in the words of Martin Parr.
The exhibition will reproduces work from over seventy years of visual history including the D-Day landings by Robert Capa, the 1968 Paris riots by Bruno Barbey, Robert Kennedy’s funeral by Paul Fusco, the Vietnam war by Philip Jones Griffiths and 9/11 by Thomas Hoepker. It showcases iconic portraiture of political figures, actors, artists and musicians, from Che Guevara and Malcolm X, to Miles Davies and The Beatles.
Magnum Contact Sheets presents approximately 70 contact sheets together with the accompanying final image, representing the full collective of photographers including pioneers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, René Burri, Philippe Halsman and Elliott Erwitt, through to modern greats such as Jim Goldberg, Alec Soth, Paolo Pellegrin and Trent Parke.
Contact sheets and photographs are accompanied by close-up details, articles, books and magazine spreads.
Curator:
Gabriella Csizek, artistic collaborator, curator, Hungarian House of Photography – in Mai Manó House
The exhibition is open to the public:
27/05/2014 – 21/09/2014
Photographers:
Abbas, Alec Soth, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Alex Majoli, Alex Webb, Bruce Davidson, Bruce Gilden, Bruno Barbey, Burt Glinn, Chien-Chi Chang, Chim (David Seymour), Chris Steele-Perkins, Christopher Anderson, Constantine Manos, Cornell Capa, Cristina Garcia Rodero, David Alan Harvey, David Hurn, Dennis Stock, Donovan Wylie, Eli Reed, Elliott Erwitt, Erich Lessing, Eve Arnold, Ferdinando Scianna, George Rodger, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Guy Le Querrec, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Herbert List, Hiroji Kubota, Ian Berry, Inge Morath, Jacob Aue Sobol, Jean Gaumy, Jim Goldberg, John Vink, Jonas Bendiksen, Josef Koudelka, Larry Towell, Leonard Freed, Marc Riboud, Marilyn Silverstone, Mark Power, Martin Parr, Martine Franck, Micha Bar-Am, Mikhael Subotzky, Nikos Economopoulos, Paolo Pellegrin, Patrick Zachmann, Paul Fusco, Peter Marlow, Philip Jones Griffiths, Philippe Halsman, Raghu Rai, René Burri, Richard Kalvar, Robert Capa, Steve McCurry, Stuart Franklin, Susan Meiselas, Thomas Dworzak, Thomas Hoepker, Trent Parke, Werner Bischof
Magnum’s First
at Hungarian House of Photography
– in Mai Manó House