Paying it Forward: Stuart Franklin on teaching the next generation of photographers

Stuart was a member of the original Photogragraphers Workshop when we were based in St Marys Road Oxford. It was a darkroom and studio hire centre so anyone interested in making their own photographs could come and develop film and make prints. Stuart lived in Oxford at that time and would come to make prints, he is a very friendly and helpful man so I am not surprised as his role as a Magnum photographer he is teaching the next generation.

The urge to document their world photographically is a drive that has undoubtedly been felt by many Magnum photographers; and it’s a practice that Stuart Franklin explores in his 2016 book The Documentary Impulse, charting the motivation to visually tell stories and represent the world far back beyond the invention of the camera, all the way to cave painting. From pre-history onwards he explores a history of photographic representation in visual culture and many of the practical and ethical issues that form the backdrop to the current landscape of the industry. Through teaching, Franklin aims to help a new generation of photographers go beyond the practicalities of technique and understand their practice within the weight of this context. Here, Franklin discusses what there is to gain from a photography education, and explains how he experienced the ‘documentary impulse’ himself. You can read more here

Stuart Franklin Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China 26th May 1999. ©Stuart Franklin

On a personal level, how have you felt or experienced the ‘impulse’ in your own practice?
An impulse or obsession is almost crucial to a life in documentary. I have explored a number of ideas – still working on some today – with an irrational drive, where work that I’m pursuing, and the way I’m doing it, makes absolutely no economic sense. Most of my books evolve in that way: Footprint, The Time of Trees, Narcissus, La Città Dinamica – even The Documentary Impulse. I work on projects because I am impelled to do so.

“In visual storytelling coherence across a body of work is an essential part of authorship”

– Stuart Franklin

Read the full article here and find out about the course Stuart is running

Stuart Franklin is teaching on the Intensive Documentary Photography Course with London College of Communication and Magnum Photos. More information about this course, including details on how to apply can be found here.

Global hypercolour: Harry Gruyaert’s world of light – in pictures

From The Guardian a short gallery of the wonderful colour photography by Harry Gruyaert. He is one of the photographers we feature in our Composition In Photography course

USA, Las Vegas, International Airport, 1982 Pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg, and the video artist Nam June Paik, inspired a more experimental series of work, TV Shots, where he photographed news shows on a malfunctioning television set

Belgium, Antwerp, 1988 Using high contrast and rich colour, Harry Gruyaert fills his photography with heat and light. An exhibition, Western and Eastern Light, is at Michael Hoppen gallery, London, 9 May-27 June. All photographs: Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos/courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery

Egypt, 1987 His travels gave him a new appreciation for his homeland. ‘I had used colour in Morocco and India, places so vibrant they seemed to demand it. Previously, everything back home in Belgium had seemed grey to me. But when I discovered the beauty of banality, I was able to capture Belgium in colour’

USA, Los Angeles, 1982 Gruyaert studied at the School for Photo and Cinema in Brussels, before becoming director of photography for a TV channel alongside freelance advertising and fashion work

Harry is a Magnum photographer as featured in the last post, you can see more of his work on the Magnum site here

The rest of the Guardian article is here

Magnum Photos at 70: London Events Program

This year Magnum Photos is celebrating 70 years of contribution to photography and world history with a global events program. Public events across New York, London, Paris and in Asia will give people the opportunity to get closer to Magnum. Through engagement with its archival and contemporary work, the agency is committed to connecting more people to the importance of the image and the need to continue telling the world’s most important stories.

As part of these celebrations, a special fortnight of events will be taking place across London from May 8 to 21, 2017. Ranging from an experimental two-week artist residency to a capsule collection of t-shirts, as well as a series of exhibitions and talks throughout the two weeks. Full details here

David Hurn The Beatles during filming of ‘A Hard Days Night’. The Beatles film was primarily shot on a moving train. Beatles during shooting. London, England. 1964. © David Hurn | Magnum Photos

Magnum and Me: A Personal View

As the agency turns 70, Magnum’s Executive Director David Kogan offers an intimate perspective on photography and why it matters

Robert Capa US troops assault Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings (first assault).June 6th, 1944. Normandy, France © Robert Capa © International Center of Photography | Magnum Photos

David Kogan is Magnum’s Executive Director and a collector of photography, most notably of Robert Capa. Today we accompany this article with a collection of Robert Capa prints on the Magnum Shop.

Magnum Photos is 70 this year. Seven decades of great work, arguments, financial chaos, more arguments, loves, hatreds and big egos. It is a miracle of survival and commitment that has supported generations of talented photographers to do their work.

As someone who only joined the agency three years ago I’m often asked what makes Magnum worth it? What’s the point of keeping it going after 70 years in a world when so many images are created everyday?

It’s partially a personal commitment to photography itself. It’s also a belief that Magnum occupies a place of critical importance in the modern world of photography and photojournalism.

I started collecting magazines and newspapers when I was in my teens; reading Picture Post and Life magazines from the 1930s to the 1960s. The use of photography dominates these journals as does the skill of the photographers. However, my interest was the history. You get a true sense of another world by reading and looking at a magazine published months before the Second World War, when the writers and photographers have little idea what is going to happen. One of those Picture Posts in 1938 featured “the world’s greatest photographer,” Robert Capa, who had covered both the flood of refugees from the Spanish Civil War and the Japanese invasion of China. This was nine years before he helped create Magnum…….

So, why Magnum and why now?

People say that the world of photography has been radically altered by the digital revolution. There are billions of images uploaded every year from millions of smart phones. Everyone can be a photographer.

This is nothing new. Since the earliest cheap cameras were produced photography has been a mass medium. In the 1920s and 30s every household recorded family snaps on mass-produced cameras. We shouldn’t be surprised that the desire to see a single moment frozen in time appeals to the human eye and emotion. We all want a record of what is important to us. The image or photo gives us the easiest way to get it.

But if you believe that in a world of mass production there is still room for quality and talent then you will always have the great artists, the great singers and the great photographers whose work is different. It speaks to a higher level.

Henri Cartier-Bresson Muslim women on the slopes of Hari Parbal Hill, praying toward the sun rising behind the Himalayas. Srinagar. Kashmir, India. 1948. © Henri Cartier-Bresson | Magnum Photos

Go here for full details of these events celebrating Magnum 

Magnum Live Lab (May 8 – 21, 2017)

Magnum Photographers Olivia Arthur, Carl De Keyzer and Mark Power will work alongside each other in a two week residency in the Magnum Print Room, responding to the local area. Transforming the space into a working lab, the resulting work will create an exhibition that stands as a celebration of and an inquiry into the medium of photography and the creative process of making.

Find out more here.

Magnum Photos at 70: 7 Decades of Advertising (May 8 – 20, 2017)

Magnum Photos and G.F Smith Photographic have collaborated to explore Magnum’s long history with the advertising industry, featuring notable archival and contemporary examples of Magnum’s work in this area over the last 70 years. The exhibition will recreate work on corresponding historical papers from G.F Smith and feature work from pioneers of the photographic advertising industry such as Burt Glinn.

Find out more here.

Magnum Photos Now: What is Magnum? (May 10, 2017)

Throughout Magnum’s seventy year history there have been many attempts to define the agency, its members’ vision of photography, its values and its history. This lively discussion chaired by photography critic Sean O’Hagan, and featuring the agency’s Executive Director David Kogan alongside Magnum photographers Jonas Bendiksen, David Hurn and Olivia Arthur, will ask the question, ‘What is Magnum?’ and what is the future of this historic agency?

Find out more here.

70 at 70 in London (May 15 – June 15, 2017)

The 70 at 70 exhibition at London’s Kings Cross charts a potted history of Magnum. The exhibition features 70 pictorial and historical photographic icons, celebrating the diversity of the Magnum Photos agency and how its photographers have borne witness to major events of the last 70 years.

Find out more here.

The Magnum Home (May 17 – 21, 2017)

A London pop-up in collaboration with Plinth and publisher Thames & Hudson will explore youth culture, through an exhibition curated by Ekow Eshun, installations, talks and events, as well as the opportunity to purchase limited-edition products by Plinth that incorporate the work of Magnum photographers.

Find out more here.

Magnum at Photo London (May 17 – 21, 2017)

At this year’s Photo London, Magnum is showing a combination of early and contemporary work. This will include both modern and vintage prints alongside period works from Magnum’s 40th exhibition ‘In Our Time’. Magnum is also presenting a unique installation on Japan by Max Pinckers, in which he juxtaposes his own work with vintage prints by Werner Bischof.

Find out more here.

Magnum Photos x Richardson at Dover Street Market London (May 18 – 21, 2017)

Magnum Photos’ extensive archive has been curated by Andrew Richardson on the theme of resistance and protest to create a project at the intersection between fashion and documentary photography in collaboration with Dover Street Market. The capsule collection of 5 t-shirts will be sold exclusively via Dover Street Market.

Find out more here.

David Hurn’s Swaps (May 18 – 21, 2017)

To celebrate the community of photographers of which he is a part, Magnum’s current President Martin Parr has curated a selection of the print swaps from which David Hurn has built an extraordinary collection for an exhibition at Photo London.

Find out more here.

Join us in celebrating Magnum’s 70th anniversary throughout 2017. Bookmark our anniversary hub to find seminal stories, new work, and discover what Magnum events are happening near you.

View and licence some of the our most iconic pictures from our dedicated 70th anniversary page on Magnum Pro.

 

 

Harry Gruyaert: ‘I discovered how to see’

Harry Gruyaert tells Lucy Davies in The Telegraph how he turned colour photography into art.

Who? you may ask: Harry Gruyaert, born in Antwerp (Belgium) in 1941, studied at the School of Film and Photography in Brussels from 1959 to 1962. Then he became a photographer in Paris, while working as a freelance director of photography for Flemish television between 1963 and 1967.

In 1969, he made the first of many trips to Morocco.
From 1970 to 1972 he lived in London. This is an opportunity for unprecedented visual experiments: he decided to “cover” the Munich Olympics of 1972 and the first Apollo flights, on a broken TV screen he has at its disposal, by manipulating the colors.
Between 1973 and 1980, he began a long essay on Belgium first in black and white and then in color.

Harry Gruyaert joined Magnum Photos in 1981 and continues many trips including Asia, USA, Middle East and Russia.

In the 2000s Harry Gruyaert abandons film to digital photography.
Very concerned about the quality of prints made previously in Cibachrome and sometimes dye transfer, he experimented early in the inkjet printing. Better suited to revealing the rich shades found in his films, digital print opens new possibilities for his work, bringing it one step closer to his original intention, namely to give color the means to assert its true existence.

Here is the article

In Paris, in his early 20s, Harry Gruyaert would go to the cinema five or six times a week. Having been desperate to leave his hometown of Antwerp, where – in his words – “there was nothing to learn”, he had relocated to the French capital in the hope of becoming a photographer. “It could have been London or New York, but Paris was nearer and Paris had some photographers I had heard of,” he says. “But Paris also had better movies, and I learnt everything at the movies.”

The year was 1962, and in between screenings of Truffaut’s Jules et Jim and Antonioni’s L’Avventura – he watched the latter more than 10 times – Gruyaert would sit in his tatty little apartment and telephone the hippest fashion photographers of the day, hoping for an “in”.

_{Paris, 1985 (© Harry Gruyaert / Magnum Photos)}

“I started with William Klein and Jeanloup Sieff and I asked if I could show them my work,” he tells me, when we meet in London. “Klein said: ‘Maybe, but can you charge a camera battery?’ I was so excited, but all I could think when I met him was ‘Jeez, this guy looks and behaves exactly like his photographs.’ It was the most important lesson I learnt, because it showed me right away that photography is all about personality.” READ MORE HERE

 

Open for Business – Magnum Photos Exhibition

Open for Business is the story of British manufacturing and industry told through the lens of 9 Magnum photographers.

Princess Yachts, Plymouth. 72 foot motor yachts. L/R, Tony Bruce, Darrell Bratcher, Craig Wickes, Mark Lavis

Credits : © Chris Steele-Perkins / Magnum Photos

Pelamis wave machines, the Sound of Hoy, Orkney Islands

Credits : © Stuart Franklin / Magnum Photos

In 2013, Multistory and Magnum Photos commissioned nine of the world’s leading photographers to document contemporary British manufacturing.  During a period of great economic instability, and where questions are being raised about the strength of western economies within the worldwide market, there has never been a more relevant time to explore the condition of Britain’s manufacturing future.

22 August 2014 – 2 November 2014 Science Museum London

Conor. Tate & Lyle sugar refinery, London

Credits : © Bruce Gilden/MAGNUM PHOTOS

Renishaw, Bristol. Worker on the assembly line at the precision engineering plant

Credits : © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

In 2013, Jonas Bendiksen, Stuart Franklin, Bruce Gilden, David Hurn, Peter Marlow, Martin Parr, Mark Power, Chris Steele-Perkins and Alessandra Sanguinetti photographed over 100 workplaces across the UK, from one-man businesses to FTSE 100 companies.

Through eye-opening photography and film footage, Open for Business celebrates the resilience of British industry. From traditional, handmade crafts, foundries and assembly lines to modern, intelligent automation, laboratories and high-tech cleanrooms, this economic sector demonstrates an extraordinary adaptability and diversity.

Discover a different side of London in the work of award-winning American street photographer, Bruce Gilden, who focuses on the varied manufacturing taking place in the city. Creating unflinching portraits of workers at the Tate & Lyle and Vauxhall factories, Gilden demonstrates the physical impact of work, and raises questions about the social responsibilities of companies to their employees.

As British industry faces several challenges, Open for Business reveals the daily struggle at a human level as businesses attempt to cut costs, streamline processes and level up to international competition. The project captures British manufacturing’s effect on regional culture and community life, and celebrates the work, activities and lives of its employees.

For more information about the project, visit the Open for Business website.

See behind the scenes images of the photographers’ shoots on the Open for Business Tumblr.

Inspection and service hatch on a section bending machine

Credits : The Angle Ring Ltd, Tipton, Black Country. Large scale metal bending. © Peter Marlow / Magnum Photos

Bombardier, Derby. Train production

Credits : © Mark Power / Magnum Photos

Science Museum Here

Open For Business Here

Josef Koudelka – the great Czech photographer

Today I start an occasional series on the great photographers, those who are referred to as masters. This series will be to introduce you to photographers who you may have heard of but never investigated or perhaps you have never come across and so are completely new to you.

Today I introduce Josef Koudelka

Josef Koudelka

(1938-) Documentary, Landscape, Photojournalism

Biography: Born in a tiny village of Moravia, Koudelka began photographing his family and surroundings as a teenager with a 6 x 6 Bakelite camera.

He was trained at the Technical University in Prague and worked as an aeronautical engineer in Prague and Bratislava from 1961-67. He had been able to obtain an old Rolleiflex and in 1961, while working as a theater photographer in Prague, he also started a detailed study of the gypsies of Slovakia, who were then undergoing further attempts to “assimilate” them within the Czech state. His work was the subject of an exhibition in Prague in 1967.

In 1968 Koudelka extended his project to gypsy communities in Rumania and that same year recorded the invasion of Prague by Warsaw Pact armies. Smuggled out of the country with the help of Czech curator Anna Farova and published with the initials P.P. ( Prague photographer) to protect his family, the highly dramatic pictures showing Russian tanks rolling into Prague and the Czech resistance became international symbols and won him the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal………more

As a member of The Magnum Photo Agency he is already considered one of the greats alongside Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa etc. This link is a short film about his work of the Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 from the Magnum in Motion series

Further information can be found in this excellent Guardian interview with Koudelka in 2008

Koudelka is a photographer whose work is impossible to ignore because each image throws up so many stories, as you look at a picture and start to try to understand the reasons why the shutter was released at that moment a range of emotions, expectations and ideas come to you. His work is rarely decorative, it is always demanding and about difficult subjects. In some ways the early work of Oxford photographer Paddy Summerfield reminds me of Koudelka, Paddy’s early work is on permanent exhibition in the reception area of the Old Bank Hotel on the High Street in Oxford. Paddy is a reluctant interwebber so although he is often mentioned he no longer has his own site but this might give you some idea of his work

The hope is that with these occasional introductions you will find someone whose work you are absorbed by and undertake further investigations or maybe even go and buy a book

TIM HETHERINGTON: YOU NEVER SEE THEM LIKE THIS – Exhibition

About Tim Hetherington: You Never See Them Like This

Two years after his death, Open Eye Gallery pays tribute to the work of Liverpool-born photojournalist Tim Hetherington (1970 – 2011) in an exhibition of photography and film work. The show is presented in collaboration with the Tim Hetherington Trust and Magnum Photos.

Drawing from the series of images published in his acclaimed book Infidel (Chris Boot Ltd, London 2010), which offers an intimate insight into the lives of American soldiers in conflict but beyond the action of war, almost 30 of Hetherington’s genre-defying photographs will be reproduced in varying scale, including a number of billboard formats.

The exhibition’s title, You Never See Them Like This, is a quote by Tim Hetherington talking to his creative collaborator Sebastian Junger (a journalist and his co-director on the Oscar-winning documentary film, Restrepo), describing the revelation he had looking at the sleeping soldiers: “They always look so tough… but when they’re asleep they look like little boys. They look the way their mothers probably remember them.”

Set against the unexpectedly beautiful landscape of the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, Hetherington’s still images follow the arrival, efforts and advancement of a US contingent in establishing an outpost in this North Eastern part of Afghanistan. The work highlights the long-term nature of Hetherington’s photographic projects, his interest in narrative, human connection and the close relationships he developed with his subjects.

As days of intense conflict are broken up by long periods of waiting, the photo-reporter explores how these soldiers cope with this emotionally draining existence. Looking at how they build up resilience, renegotiate their relations and manage their feelings, Hetherington ultimately documents the formation of a strong brotherhood consolidated over a period of one year, underpinned by themes including sexuality, alienation/isolation and the sense of loss and fear.

Tim Hetherington: You Never See Them Like This is supported by the Mayor of Liverpool.

6 SEPT – 24 NOV 2013

Open Eye Gallery
19 Mann Island
Liverpool Waterfront
Liverpool, L3 1BP

Details here

Leonard Freed’s photographs of The March on Washington

From the ever excellent Denver Post blog we find this selection of images by the great Leonard Freed

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech and 250,000 people participated in the largest peaceful demonstration for civil rights ever witnessed in America. Magnum photographer Leonard Freed documented The March on Washington and his images endure as a testament to the historic importance of that day. The demonstration ultimately led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Freed’s powerful images of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom will be featured in two group exhibitions in Washington, DC, one at the Library of Congress and the other at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the march this month. From the hundreds of images that Freed made of the march, fifty-seven photographs were chosen for the recently published book, “This Is the Day: The March on Washington photographs by Leonard Freed,” published by Getty.

Leonard Freed (American, 1929-2006) began making photographs in 1954 and joined Magnum Photos as a full-time member in 1972. Freed’s photographs are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

August 28, 1963. On that historic day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his ÒI Have a DreamÓ speech at the Lincoln Memorial and 250,000 people participated in the largest peaceful demonstration for civil rights ever witnessed in America. Freed Photo Credit: All photographs © Estate of Leonard Freed Ð Magnum Photos (Brigitte Freed).

 

 

See all of the images here

Magnum Photos announces Sydney photography workshop

For our friends on the other side (of the world…..nothing spooky here) a workshop. Hosted in conjunction with the Head On photography festival, the five-day workshop will be led by Magnum photographers Ian Berry, Eli Reed and Chris Steele-Perkin

Intended to be hands-on and practical, the workshop, which will take place from 21-25 May, will involve group critiques, and reviewing and mentoring sessions.

Image by Ian Berry

Participants will be encouraged to work on self-directed projects under the guidance of Magnum photographers Ian Berry, Eli Reed and Chris Steele-Perkins who will assist in all aspects of shooting, editing, discussing and presenting work across the five days.

The workshop is aimed at photographers who want to challenge their visual understanding, develop their photographic identity and push the boundaries of their personal practice.

It will culminate in a projection of participants’ work as part of the official Head On Photo Festival, Australia’s largest photography festival.

In addition, workshop participants will have the opportunity to produce a group photobook in conjunction with Blurb.

The deadline for applications is 28 April. To apply for a place on the workshop, visit the Magnum website.

For information about Head On Photo Festival, visit www.headon.com.au.

The Vatican City by David Seymour

Magnum Photos, the famous photographers agency and picture library, regularly sends out selections of images that might be used in editorial articles. The latest to land on our desk is by David “Chim” Seymour, one of the founder members of Magnum along with Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and Robert Capa

This picture essay is from the Vatican in 1949

All pictures by David Seymour, Magnum

See all 25 in the essay here