This book is a biography of Magnum, told largely in the words of its photographers. It offers a unique perspective on half a century of world history from an extraordinary group of men and women who were front line witnesses at virtually every major event in the last fifty years. Wars, famines, natural disasters, social, political and environmental crises - Magnum photographers were there. They have been acute observers of the human condition, photographing the richest people in the world, the poorest, the least known and the most celebrated, from Marilyn Monroe to Che Guevara, JFK to Nelson Mandela, Picasso to Krushchev. This is a multi-layered story. At one level, it tells how a small group of photographrs - among them Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and George Rodger - came together, established and nurtured a co-operative photographic agency that has survived against all the odds to become the most famous in the world. At a secondary level, it is the richly anecdotal story of the photographers themselves, their adventures around the world and their feelings about, and reactions to, their assignments.
Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History
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If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough," said Robert Capa, the legendary photojournalist who, with Henri Cartier-Bresson and other documentary shooters, founded the Magnum press agency in 1947. Capa got close to the action, of course; he died under fire in Indo-China in 1954, seeking the perfect image of war. Other Magnum photographers died in places like Afghanistan, Israel and Chechnya, always at the forefront of battle and strife, always with an eye on capturing history as it unfolded. In this well-written study of their work, British journalist Russell Miller shows how their images have changed the ways in which we respond to war, politics, and crises. --Gregory McNamee
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Miller's book tells a story of Magnum, probably the best-known photo journalist agency ever. He provides an in-depth picture of this fabulous group of photographers, their motivations, principles, differences and temperamental quarrels. Out of any collection of most powerful documentary photographs of the second half of the 20th century, it is more than likely that a large majority will be by Magnum photographers. This book shows us the people behind those photographs: unconventional, often egocentric, but always brilliant photographers. With many of them telling their story in their own words, the book is a great reading for any would-be photo-journalist and for everyone taking a deeper interest in photography. My only objection is that the book could have included more photographs (there are only 13).
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars
1 review
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unusual kind of book
17 Mar 2012
By HS
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition
The book is a series of interviews with the photographers, reminiscences really. Is Magnum about to collapse and the writer wanted to 'get it down' while memories are relatively fresh? I am a photographer too, serious, and aware of Magnum since the late '60's. I wanted to know how Magnum operated and what kind of people were members. The overview was lacking (the reason for only three starts). I found that Magnum was more a commune with a political outlook (decidedly leftish) than a commercial representative agency. A faculty club that acted as if it had a large endowment to fund the member's tenure salaries. To keep the doors open the agency levied a 30+% cut of the contracts that photographers earned. Why? Because many (most) of the 'members' produced next to nothing. The story of pitiful W Eugene Smith was haunting. Henri Cartier-Bresson, independently wealthy and a genius, inviting new members with little concurrence from other members. Founder 'Robert Capa' a charismatic who started it all. Sympathetic for the Sandinista, and for the murderer Che Guevera. Less than a dozen photos in the Kindle edition.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
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