This year, Magnum Photos will celebrate 70 years of contribution to photography with the launch of a global public events, exhibition and new content programme. Centred on the three themes of community, witnessing history and Magnum Photos Now, the special anniversary programme will explore the institution and photographer personalities of then and now, central to past and current visual culture. Throughout the year, the website will feature defining images and visual stories from the past seven decades of Magnum including founding member Robert Capa’s iconic documentation of the D.Day landings in Omaha Beach, 1944, Henri Cartier-Bresson’s 1947 record of the independence of India and Stuart Franklin’s first-hand account of the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989. Magnum photographers will also take on an ambitious new visual project, Magnum Retold, to mark the occasion. This will see Magnum’s contemporary photographers reshoot some of the agency’s most seminal stories, reworked to reflect the changing world we live in today.

Click through / scroll down for a list of key events.

Magnum Press Release

MAGNUM PHOTOS ANNOUNCES 70th ANNIVERSARY PROGRAMME

In 1947 four photographers, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David "Chim" Seymour, toasted the founding of what would become the world’s most influential artist collective over a celebratory magnum of champagne in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. In the past 70 years, 92 photographers have contributed to the story of Magnum and today, 49 photographer members continue to chronicle the world, interpreting its people, events and issues through visual storytelling. 

This year, Magnum Photos will celebrate 70 years of contribution to photography and world history with the launch of a global public events, exhibition and new content programme. Full details of the special anniversary programme are published today via a dedicated anniversary hub on Magnum’s new storytelling website www.magnumphotos.com

Centred on the three themes of community, witnessing history and Magnum Photos Now, the special anniversary programme will explore the institution and photographer personalities of then and now, central to past and current visual culture.

Public events across New York, London, Paris and in Asia will give people the opportunity to get closer to Magnum at 70 and its evolution into a forward-thinking media brand. Through engagement with its archival and contemporary work, Magnum Photos is committed to connecting more people to the importance of the image and the need to continue telling the world’s most important stories.

Throughout the year, the site will feature defining images and visual stories from the past seven decades of Magnum including founding member Robert Capa’s iconic documentation of the D.Day landings in Omaha Beach, 1944, Henri Cartier-Bresson’s 1947 record of the independence of India and Stuart Franklin’s first hand account of the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989.

Magnum photographers will also take on an ambitious new visual project, Magnum Retold, to mark the occasion. This will see Magnum’s contemporary photographers reshoot some of the agency’s most seminal stories, reworked to reflect the changing world we live in today.

Magnum’s president, Martin Parr said of the year-long celebrations: “Surviving 70 years as an artistic co-operative is in itself an achievement. In this period Magnum photographers have accumulated an unrivalled photographic archive, both in terms of world events and images of contemporary life. A key objective of 2017 and of Magnum’s anniversary celebrations is to expand audiences, encourage mass participation in the agency’s work and, following the successful launch of a new online storytelling platform last year, reinforce the company’s evolution into a forward-thinking media entity.”

Magnum’s Executive Director, David Kogan said “At a time of mass photography, there is a need and a place for an agency that has a lineage and depth that stretches back 70 years. The work of our founding members can be seen in a direct line to that of our modern members; we are part of a past that leads to the future. We continue to tell stories in an uncompromised way that reflect the interests of society, and our new approach to digital allows us to open up this dialogue and create a more sustainable model for the agency and our photographers.”

Key events include:

PARIS

The City in History opens 28 February 2017
An exhibition across Paris Metro stations, in collaboration with RATP

Magnum: Analogue Recovery 28 April – 20 August 2017
Le Bal explores the historical archives of the cooperative, from 1947 to 1977

Magnum Photos Now 
Monthly talks programme in collaboration with MKII, Paris. 

LONDON

David Hurn Swaps 18 - 21 May 2017
70 works from David Hurn’s photo collection curated by Martin Parr, on display at Photo London

Live Lab 8 – 21 May 2017
Experimental artist-in-residency at the Magnum Print Room

Magnum Photos Now
Monthly talks programme in collaboration with Barbican 

NEW YORK

Early Magnum: On and In New York 29 March – 28 April 2017
National Arts Club, New York – exhibition of classic Magnum photographs taken in New York in the 1950s. 

Magnum Manifesto 26 May 2- 3 September 2017
An official anniversary exhibition curated by Clément Chéroux, opening at the International Centre of Photography (ICP), New York, followed by an international tour. An accompanying book published by Thames & Hudson will be released on 25 May 2017. 

New York events programme 1- 30 June 2017
A month-long event programme including film screenings at MoMA and Metrograph cinema

Magnum Photos Now
Monthly talks programme in collaboration with the ICP

ONLINE

70th Anniversary square print sales in June & November 2017
Examining the legacy of two of Magnum’s co-founders Robert Capa and George Rodger.

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