Magnum Archive Comes to Texas

I remember years ago walking through a Magnum exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of History and Science. This was before studying photography and I did not know the names and stories of the photographers who took them. But I will never forget the pictures. Room after room filled with photographs of joy, compassion, and tragedy were displayed on the walls. The best and the worst of the family of man. The photographers had been in every battle, every famine, every catastrophe and they looked these horrors straight in the eye risking life and liberty to get the picture and send it out to the world. Some of the photos I had seen as a child on the pages of magazines and in newspapers, and the echo of those days lingered in my mind as I viewed them anew. The exhibit marked the first time that I can recall understanding the significance and power of the photographic image. Perhaps it is why I chose to study photography.

Magnum was founded two years after World War II ended by four photographers: Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David "Chim" Seymour and is a co-op owned and operated by the photographer members. The Magnum Agency was described by Cartier-Bresson as:

"...a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually."

Members of Magnum have photographed nearly every major event, politician and personality, in world history since 1947. The archive consists of over one million photographs and transparencies and continues to grow.

Last week it was announced that this historic archive of vintage prints will now be maintained by the University of Texas in Austin at the Harry Ransom Center. This is a major coup for the university and the state of Texas. The Ransom Center was already a destination for seeing photographs. Their archives contain over 5 million photographs including the first photograph ever made by Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826. This rare treasure shares a special place at the entrance right next to a copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Through the years I have seen many remarkable exhibitions in this space and I am truly excited about this addition to their already impressive collection, and look forward to exhibitions on the Magnum archive.

Photo Credit: Gilles Peress, Magnum Photographer, William Street, Derry, Ireland, January 30, 1972. Read his amazing eye-witness account of this day referred to as  Bloody Sunday at the International Center for Photography's blog - Fans in a Flashbulb.