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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2005-01-12
Review: 'Magnum Stories'
What Photographers Should Be Reading
By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography
Didn't get the great photo gift you wanted for the holidays? Did your family and friends-once again-demonstrate they could not read your mind and get you the perfect Next Big Photographic Thing?
No matter. One of the newest books from Magnum will keep your photographic juices rocking the rest of the year-and beyond.
Your nearest bookstore (or on-line substitute) has a graduate course in photography waiting for you- Magnum Stories.
In recent years the staff at Magnum Photos has been working the archives of this premier photo agency, making the work available to the book buying public.
This new offering presents work by 61 photographers, some living, some having "gone on to the final wash" as Ansel Adams once described it. This allows for a wide range of photographs, from those who have passed on like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and Eugene Smith, to living veterans like Elliott Erwitt and Burt Glinn, to those in the current trenches such as Gilles Peress, Bruno Barbey, and Paolo Pellegrin.
Magnum Stories, edited by Chris Boot. Published in 2004 by Phaidon Press Limited, 512 pages. http://www.sportsshooter.com/education/book_profile.html?id=583
Photographers can read and re-read these chapters for months to come and get new value with every visit.
Each photographer is given two pages to write about their career. In the case of those no longer living, editors have assembled the text, often with long quoted passage from books or letters by the photographers.
Immediately following the text each photographer is given three two-page spreads to show pictures from one project. Some show just a few photographs, Others offer a dozen or more. Stills others show a favorite layout from an earlier publication.
And despite the title of the book suggesting story-focused content the volume is very Magnum-like. That is this agency with as many opinions about what makes a successful agency (or good photography!) as it has members with strong egos, has all chaos of the membership. While some presentations stick to what the photographers often refer to as the Robert Capa storytelling format, many photographers start their written statements explaining they don't do that kind of photography, are not interested in that kind of photography, and don't consider themselves storytellers as much as photographers.
Yikes! This is Magnum all right. E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y-'s got an opinion and is going to express it, regardless of the title of the book.
However, in keeping with the title, nearly every six-page photographic presentation has some kind of cohesion. We might see as many photo essays as picture stories, but the bulk of the works hangs together.
There is much to recommend the book beyond the pictures, which are interesting by themselves, showing a wide variety of content and approach. In the text photographers have a lot to say about their influences. Here Cartier-Bresson's name comes up constantly. We also learn what the photographers read. Veteran Phillip Jones-Griffiths says he carries Cartier-Bresson's small, pocket-sized, "The Mind's Eye" with him on the road.
We also learn how several of these photographers came close to giving up photography altogether shortly before being asked to join Magnum. Alex Majoli had pawned his cameras, was working in a restaurant and was sharing living quarters in a squat when he learned Magnum members had looked at his work and had invited him to join.
At 500-plus pages this is one hefty volume. It's not one photographers will pack along to read at lunch. This is a read-at-home-with-the-book-open-flat-on-a-strong-desk tome.
For photographers serious about stories and storytelling, this is a must. An easy justification for anyone concerned about such a purchase, ("Are you buying more books?") is that is Magnum Stories is the only photography book you will need this year-or next.
Photographers, particularly those in school or seeking to break into the photojournalism, are welcome to send ideas for future columns to Jim McNay at jim.mcnay@brooks.edu.
Questions about getting started in photojournalism that might be answered in future columns are also welcome.
Related Links:
Book: Magnum Stories
Jim McNay's Member Page
Related Email Addresses:
Jim McNay: jim.mcnay@brooks.edu
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