Current Exhibition
MAGNUM MASTERPIECES
21.02.–29.03.2025
Magnum held its first meeting on the roof terrace of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in April 1947. The legendary photo agency was founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David Seymour with the aim of working independently in a co-operative of like-minded people. In the heyday of photojournalism, magazines such as Life, Holiday and Paris Match published the images of Magnum photographers. For the members of the agency, independence meant not being subject to the arbitrariness of the photo editors and being able to choose their own subjects. The protection of copyright and control over the journalistic use of the photographs were their central, and at the time revolutionary, agendas.
The strengthened role of the image authors is also reflected in a visual language that consciously takes a position – social responsibility and political awareness characterise many of the Magnum photographers' photo essays. Small-format handheld cameras such as the Leica and more lightsensitive film material enabled a flexibility that Robert Capa in particularly utilised in his war photography. Henri Cartier-Bresson's text ‘L'instant décisif’ (‘The decisive moment’), published in 1952, was, in retrospect, the agency's central manifesto. In it, he explains the importance of conscious and at the same time intuitive selection – of a scene from reality as well as a shot from the filmstrip – and the credo of precise composition without using artificial light, subsequent cropping or telephoto lenses. The humanistic perspective, clarity and power of the visual language of the two founding members was style-defining for many decades. Their photographs, mostly taken in the context of journalistic reportage, are regarded as masterpieces of photographic art today.
The exhibition brings together vintage prints and high-quality, authorised prints by eight of the most influential protagonists, with all works being offered for sale. On display are examples from legendary reportages: the landing of the US Army in Normandy, the refugee crisis in India, the American civil rights movement and poverty in Harlem, the building of the Berlin Wall and other events of the Cold War, as well as poetic and humorous street photography and portraits of stars such as James Dean, Joan Crawford, Andy Warhol, Louis Armstrong, Arthur Miller and Pablo Picasso.
With works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, Elliott Erwitt, Dennis Stock, Bruce Davidson and René Burri.
MAGNUM MASTERPIECES + POLAROID STILL LIFES
OstLicht Gallery
21 February to 29 March 2025