Magnum Photos is a photographers’ collective founded in 1947 on the basis of an idea by photographer Robert Capa. We collaborated with six of their members for a UT collection featuring photos that take the viewer on a journey to another world. How do these photographers approach the act of photography and the personalized fusion of journalism and art that defines the Magnum ethos? And which design will stir up your sense of wanderlust?
Martin Parr
Photography is both high and low culture
Q: What are you most concerned with when taking a photograph?
A: It’s really difficult to take good pictures. You think you can take an iconic picture every time you go out, but most of the time you fail. I accept that failure is part of the expectation; you need all those failures to get one picture that actually works. If you get two or three good photos in a year, you’re doing pretty well. It’s so easy to take a photograph but so hard to take a good one.
Q: What photos do you have on your phone?
A: People I’ve met, snaps of me with different photographers that I’ve met over the years, books that I want to buy. I don’t take photos of food at restaurants.
Q: How did this particular photo come to be?
A: You know, when I look at this photo, I don’t even remember taking it. I don’t dispute that it’s mine—it’s got my style, with the combination of bright flash and birds—but it’s interesting that I don’t remember this particular photo since I normally remember taking them. I don’t think it has ever been published, and no one’s looked at it. I had forgotten it entirely. I thought it was taken in Brighton, but it turns out I took it while in Nice on assignment for a magazine.
Q: Have you gone on any memorable trips?
A: North Korea was surreal. I went there about 25 years ago with a company from Beijing. I was allowed to shoot but not to go out from the hotel on my own. I could only shoot from the bus, but that was interesting enough.
Q: How do you feel about your photograph being on a T-shirt?
A: I’m all for it. I welcome everything, from T-shirts to face masks. I think the strength of photography is that it’s both high and low culture at the same time. It’s remarkable how you can have a photograph hanging on a wall in a museum, while that very same image is also used on a T-shirt or a skateboard. I will never turn down an opportunity to have my photography used in low culture; likewise, I’m not going to turn down the Museum of Modern Art. To me, it’s one of the greatest strengths of photography.
PROFILE
Martin Parr | Born in London in 1952, Parr began his photography career after studying the subject at university. He joined Magnum in 1988 and is now a full member. A champion of the new color movement, his distinctive color photos reflect his unique perspective on society.
Alec Soth
Let thinking fall away; live in the moment
Q: What awakened your interest in photography?
A: I started building temporary outdoor sculptures in college and used photography to document them. Eventually, I realized that I didn’t need the sculptures—the photos themselves could be the art.
Q: Are there any Magnum Photos photographers who have particularly influenced you?
A: Absolutely. I have been influenced by a great number of photographers, but one whose work I am particularly drawn to is Susan Meiselas. When I was sixteen, she was included in an exhibition in Minnesota called On the Line: The New Color Photojournalism. I didn’t see the show myself, but I found the catalogue later and was influenced by her use of color. Susan is now a good friend and I have so much respect for her, for reasons far beyond her use of color.
Q: What are you most concerned with when taking a photograph?
A: When I’m taking a photograph, my goal is to be in the moment. In a sense, my goal is to let thinking fall away. I save my thinking for before and after I click the shutter.
Q: How did this particular photo come to be?
A: I took this photo in 2008. I was traveling across the United States, photographing people who desired to retreat from society or escape altogether.
Q: What does travel mean to you?
A: Travel for me is largely about focus. When I travel, I’m less prone to the day-to-day interruptions of my regular life since I’m living in the small bubble of my car. My most meaningful travels have been road trips. Perhaps the most meaningful was a trip down the Mississippi River when I was in college. That was a decade before my first book, ”Sleeping by the Mississippi”.
Q: What is culture to you?
A: I like the biological meaning of “culture,” in the sense of cultivating living material. I see the social definition of the word in the same way—as something living and transforming over time.
PROFILE
Alec Soth | Born in 1969 in Minnesota, Soth joined Magnum Photos in 2004 and became a full member in 2008. His contemporary American style typified by the open road drew attention in the art world early in his career. His photobooks include ”Sleeping by the Mississippi”.
Eli Reed
Possibility is always there if you are brave enough to see it.
Q: What did you think of Magnum Photos before you joined?
A: I thought of it as a group of photographers doing quality, individual, humane work. The agency is constantly changing, if sometimes for the wrong reasons. Even so, all members, from veterans to newcomers, produce work of strictly the highest quality, so the tradition continues even as it is in an ongoing state of change.
Q: What makes you think, “Now is the moment to click the shutter”?
A: If you are thinking “now is the moment,” you have already missed the picture.
Q: How did this particular photo come to be?
A: I remember this picture very well. It was in South Korea in 2014, during rush hour on a rainy day. I loved the car lights seen from behind—so strange but beautiful. The combination worked; everything was well put together. I like the semi-storm feeling, and the picture looks really good on a T-shirt (though unfortunately it is too small for me).
Q: Have you gone on any memorable trips?
A: It would have to be when I left the United States for the first time. That trip helped me begin to fully understand the level of racism at home. After that, I began to deal with these problems through my work. I learned to focus quietly within my being, as I had never done before.
Q: What does photography mean to you?
A: The possibilities that are always there, if only you are brave enough to see them.
Q: What is culture to you?
A: Culture is the visible part of life that is honest, no matter where you arrive on this planet. Most of the culture I see is not honest because everything is viewed through the lens of understanding and appreciating the culture of someone else. Even when the artist tries to reach for and fulfill the core of their soul, the publisher will so often dump it and instead choose what is popular at the moment.
PROFILE
Eli Reed | Reed was born in Texas in 1946 and began working in photography in 1970. He is an accomplished photojournalist for several newspapers, becoming a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1981. He was nominated to Magnum in 1983 and became a full member in 1988.
Gueorgui Pinkhassov
Real photographs capture the decisive moments of everyday life
Q: We understand that you worked with the film director, Andrei Tarkovsky.
A: That’s correct. I was interested in artistic photography as a young man and found a lot of inspiration in Andrei’s films. I was so fascinated by his aesthetics that I showed him my photos when I first met him. But he told me plainly, “These are not photographs. Real photographs capture the decisive moments of everyday life. When you start taking authentic photos of everyday life, everything will begin to change.” And he was right. Since then, my life has become hard, worse than any nightmare I’ve ever had. Andrei was a larger-than-life mentor to me; I took his advice and bought a compact camera to take pictures of my everyday life.
Q: What makes you think, “Now is the moment to click the shutter”?
A: I discovered the answer on my own, but I’ll paraphrase Henri Cartier-Bresson. Simply put, I don’t think about anything. I enter a state of nothingness in which the self ceases to exist. I become a primitive creature, a predator who moves and captures his prey by instinct. If I can, I try to suspend my intelligence and stop thinking. Human instinct has nothing to do with intellect; it is about reacting quickly. I think this is the best approach to photography.
Q: What would you be doing if you had not become a photographer?
A: Honestly, I’m not sure. Life would have led me to another career or brought out some other talent in me. But I don’t think any other profession can compare in terms of being able to travel and see the world. I get to do what I love and revolve my life around it, and I can still make a living and earn the admiration of others. What could be more gratifying?
Q: What does photography mean to you?
A: That’s a difficult question—I could go on and on! To me, it comes down to “photo” and “graph,” by which I mean that photography is a tool for drawing with light. It is a way to preserve time.
PROFILE
Gueorgui Pinkhassov | Born in Moscow in 1952, Pinkhassov worked as an on- set photographer at a film studio before going freelance in 1978, when he was invited to the set of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker as a still photographer. He joined Magnum Photos in 1988.
Alessandra Sanguinetti
The gravity and brevity of being alive on this earth
Q: Are there any Magnum Photos photographers who have particularly influenced you?
A: I came across Chim’s (David Seymour’s) photographs when I was nine years old, and they made a big impression on me. His images of children orphaned and scarred by war were my first window into a world my sheltered childhood had yet to learn about. They introduced me to the idea of photography as testimony of others’ experiences, of history, of injustice and tragedy and showed me its unique ability to create an instant connection with people I would never have known about otherwise.
Q: What makes you think, “Now is the moment to click the shutter”?
A: There is not a fixed quality I look for; it changes with each body of work and over time. But I can say that crystallizing the gravity and brevity of being alive at the same time on this earth is always at the root of my work.
Q: How did this particular photo come to be?
A: This was taken in 2020, a block away from my home. I drive through the crossroads in that image every day. If I turn right, the road takes me towards the coast, where it’s wilder and more desolate, and if I go left, the road leads to town and the freeway. I love being reminded every day that I can choose either.
Q: What does travel mean to you?
A: Traveling to new places makes me feel like a child again. The days feel longer and more unpredictable. I love not knowing what I’ll see or who I’ll meet when I turn the next corner.
Q: Is there anything you would love to photograph before you die?
A: I’d like to photograph a night shot of a hare crossing a long, winding country road during a full moon.
Q: What is culture to you?
A: Culture to me is storytelling. That’s the only thing I value in what sets people apart from the rest of the natural world: the capacity to reflect on and share experiences.
PROFILE
Alessandra Sanguinetti | Sanguinetti was born in New York in 1968 and has published her work in magazines such as Life and New York Magazine. She joined Magnum in 2007 and has been a full member since 2011. Her photobooks include On the Sixth Day.
Elliott Erwitt
Searching for unseen moments in everyday life
A kiss between a smiling couple is reflected in the round side mirror of a car parked along the coast. This affectionate moment was captured in a beautiful monochromatic photograph that is widely recognized around the world. The photo is Elliott Erwitt’s California Kiss.
Born to Russian parents in Paris in 1928, Erwitt immigrated to the United States when he was eleven. He developed an interest in photography while growing up in Hollywood and enrolled at Los Angeles City College to study it. After graduation, he moved to New York to begin his photography career.
The turning point for Erwitt came during a fateful encounter in New York with Robert Capa, the world-renowned photographer and one of the founders of Magnum Photos. At 25, Erwitt joined Magnum at Capa’s recommendation. He quickly distinguished himself with his diverse portfolio that included commercial photographs. He even served as Magnum’s president for three years in the late 1960s, becoming a central figure in the agency in name as well as practice.
Erwitt’s work is notable for how he uses humorous framing to capture the dramatic moments of everyday life. One good example is the work featured in this collection. Taken through a car’s rear window in Wyoming in 1954, the picture depicts a car traveling alongside a speeding locomotive. Erwitt has explained, “It’s just coincidence that the car and the train look like they’re racing.” Both vehicles were simply going their own way, but Erwitt’s viewfinder transformed the moment into a scene from an action movie.
This is typical of how he dynamically photographs everyday moments.
Erwitt has described his approach as “reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere; it’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.” To Erwitt, photography is a tool for finding the unseen moments of everyday life.
PROFILE
Elliott Erwitt | Erwitt was born in Paris in 1928 and joined Magnum in 1953. He has worked as a photographer, an essayist, and as a documentary and comedic filmmaker. His photobooks include Personal Exposures.
PROFILE
Magnum Photos｜Many photographers from around the world have joined this agency since its founding in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David Seymour. Members are known for taking photographs t Magnum Photographers. Paris 2021 hat reflect their passions and interests.
