Practical Photography

Magnum is an international photographic agency who last year celebrated their 60th anniversary Founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour, and Hungarian photographer André Friedmann, the agency was the first of its kind a photographic agency run by photographers for photographers. They would share their earnings, retain all the rights to their pictures, and have full autonomy over who, what where and when they photograph.

When the idea for the agency was still in its infancy war broke out, first in Spain, where Friedmann (working as Robert Capa) and Seymour, took photographs at the frontline whilst Cartier-Bresson got involved in filming a documentary about European military hospitals; then in Europe, Capa and Seymour saw out the war in the allied forces whilst Cartier-Bresson spent three years in a German Prisoner of War Camp. Cartier-Bresson escaped in 1943, whilst Capa and Seymour was networking with other photographers looking for escapism through their work and shared enthusiasm during this difficult period. It was during this time Capa made aliances with an English photographer called George Rodger who was working for Life, and became the fourth founder member of Magnum.

In May 1947 the name Magnum Photos was officially registered in New York Their focus was to be where stories might happen, rather than wait to be sent.

Although the idea was in motion when the War broke out, the logistics developed over these hard years and their purpose was to give photographers a moral purpose Magnum planned to document the world through photography without bias or propaganda to raise awareness and was part of a general mission for peace. Their work showed the masses that photographs have a market. Picture magazines were becoming more and more popular during the war and after it the war generally readers craved for stories and images of far off countries, the polotics, reports and conflicts of places they may not have heard of and would be unlikely to visit.

Cartier-Bresson was a painter by trade and by passion and during the war had used his creativiy and curiosity to capture the horrors of Bergen-Belsen in 1945 Cartier-Bresson remained a photographer and never returned to painting. George Rodger had a different experience from photographing war and after the war he left for Africa swearing never to photograph war again.

The survival of Magnum is nothing short of a miracle, the business plan ran on the fact that members would give back 40 per cent of their earnings to support each this would never be heard of in todays economic climate!
The Magnum co-operative was unusual as the idea was bringing togehter a group of people who essentially prefer to work alone so such bureaucracy would be a challenging prospect in terms of gaining new memebrs.

However… against all odds Magnum not only survived but flourished and 61 years on they have released their collection of the very best photographs from the agency.