Magnum's Photographs

Seventy years ago the world was a very different place. The Second World War had just ended. Tensions ran high between the Capitalist and Communist blocks. Wars were being fought- often by proxy between Communist and Western powers - in many parts of the globe. Television was in its infancy. Newspapers and magazines were the primary source of news around the world. Photographs printed in these publications were the only way for the public to see the news events.

In 1947, during this heyday of photojournalism, five photographers formed a cooperative in Paris. They were some of the best: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger, David Seymour and William Vandivert. Between them, they divided the world into regions, went to remote places and combat zones and brought back photographs to document lives, wars and events. Their agency then created a library of these photographs and sold them to magazines and newspapers. It was the first picture agency wholly owned by its members.

They named their agency after the jumbo-sized champagne bottle: Magnum.

Over the next decades, many of the world's best photographers became part of Magnum. They took iconic photographs of the 20th century: Che Guevara with his cigar, the Partition, Gandhi's funeral, Vietnam war, Biafra.... the list goes on.

Magnum photographers had to be brave and resourceful. They travelled to dangerous zones and risked their lives for the picture. Two of the founders – Capa and Seymour – were killed on assignment.

But there is something else special about Magnum's photographs. I believe this quality traces its roots to a book called The Decisive Moment, a collection of photographs by Cartier-Bresson. These photographs have a geometric perfection extracted into the frame often from everyday activities. Cartier-Bresson's camera captured instants when everything inside the frame fell into a perfect composition. “Decisive” referred to a visual, not necessarily a dramatic, climax. If your framing and timing were perfect you suddenly had something larger than the sum of its parts.

To a large extent, the aesthetics of the decisive moment was often expanded by Magnum's photographers into their own realms of journalism and news. For example, Sebastiao Salgado brought his intense, burning vision into his coverage of the Ethiopian famine. Elliott Erwitt's photographs showed humour in many everyday activities. Bruce Davidson explored the underground youth culture of the USA, including drugs culture.

Becoming a member of Magnum meant you had reached the pinnacle of photojournalism. Some photographers, however, proved too intense for Magnum and their relationship did not last. Notable among them were the seminal war photographer Don McCullin and the great American photojournalist Gene Smith.

Magnum photographers worked in black and white film (except for Ernst Haas who worked in colour from the very beginning.) But in today's world the market dynamics are very different. Print media has reduced importance while digital and instantaneous technologies reign supreme.

Magnum still has great talent in its ranks. But it seems to me that the agency is increasingly reliant on past work, using them to generate “collection” books and a variety of autographed prints. The mantle of cutting edge photojournalism has perhaps passed on to younger agencies such as VII and NOOR Images.

But in the annals of photography, Magnum will always occupy a very special place.

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