Magnum photos

Abstract

For over fifty years, since Magnum's birth in 1947, the history of this remarkable photographic cooperative has been awash in myth and legend. The gifted, colourful, principled, and often disorderly members of the agency created some of the twentieth century's most memorable still images. These photographs, appearing on the pages of magazines like LIFE, Picture Post and the Ladies' Home Journal, pricked and provoked the consciences of millions worldwide. In the process, Magnum photographers bridged that illdefined, vexatious gap between photojournalism and art. Readers interested in learning more about this phenomenon now have two new choices. One is to reach for a copy of Russell Miller's Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History. This unauthorized biography, by an outsider, examines the operation ‘of a large, unruly and highly talented family which, by some miracle has stayed together for 50 years ... (with an) aim simply to tell a cracking good story as impartially and truthfully and entertainingly as was within my capabilities, and to disregard the notoriously fragile sensibilities of the participants’. The book fulfils the criteria. Illustrated by lively quotes, twenty-six photos, and numerous anecdotes from members such as Ernst Haas, Robert Capa and Eve Arnold, the book conveys a sense of energy and excitement. The volume concludes with a look towards the future of the agency and the crucial structural importance of maintaining hannony in the union of its practitioners. Russell Miller is perceptive and his treatment of the subject comprehensive.