Category: Magnum Website Response (Page 1 of 2)

Magnum’s website gives the company an air of class and prestige. There are few frills or cute design tricks; rather, amazing images are presented cleanly and in a well-organized way. I like that you could sort images not just by photographer, but also by category and continent. I also like the sheer volume of viewable content available to website visitors. The other pieces of the site, including the blog, interactive map, store, make the overall experience for the most part helpful and engaging.

The site successfully makes Magnum feel historically rich, but it also shows flaws with this style of self-portrayal. The sight doesn’t exactly have a “young” vibe, and loses in some way because of it. They actual viewer for the images its clunky, and the overall design of the site feels generic to the point that it is somewhat boring. Despite this, it gets its main job done. It puts the work of Magnum photographers on center stage

I am fascinated by the work of Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert. I was at first drawn to his photos—specifically the series “TV SHOTS”—because they confused and intrigued me. The series’ images, which Grayert created by photographing the screen of a damaged television, are distorted and neon-colored. These 1972, highly stylized photos predate Photoshop by almost twenty years, yet they possess a strangely off-putting, modern feeling, combining a familiar, retro corniness with a vague, unsettling undertone. One of the photos I am most drawn to from the series, titled “Soup Opera. Couple,” shows a man and a woman, both staring purposefully off to their right. The frame is filled mostly with the blue of the background and the man’s jacket, but is contrasted with the bright red of the woman’s dress. There is little detail on the two’s faces, which are both covered with unnatural, bright colors. The whole image has an odd, computerized emotion of sadness: something dramatic must be going on in the soap opera, but the details are too warped and destroyed to figure out what exactly.

I was also very interested in Gruyere’s photo, “Russia. Moscow,” from 1989. Taken as part of Gruyaert’s travels throughout Europe and North Africa in the 1980s and 90s, the image depicts a balding, suit-clad man staring pensively into a wide mirror in what appears to be a blue tile-walled bathroom. The stylized lighting, nearly monochrome subject matter, and use of creepily cinematic mood makes this photo reminiscent of the work of photographer Gregory Crewdson. More than almost all of other Magnum photographers, Gruyaert seems to straddle the line between what is true journalistic photography and what fine art photography. But while the true artist Crewdson’s photos are highly constructed scenes, those of photojournalist Gruyaert depict real things. The shot “Russia. Moscow” looks like it could be a still from a movie—it suggests a story and leaves you wondering. Yet, the image shows a real place in a real moment in time.

I was also very interested in the work of French photographer Jean Gaumy. Gaumy too seems to be as much concerned about a photo’s look as he is its content. His compositions are so geometric and aesthetically pleasing, yet they feel so natural; they achieve the Henri Cartier-Bresson decisive moment effect, capturing the perfect balance to make the photograph the best it could possibly be, both visually and meaningfully. I am drawn to Gaumy’s 1986 photograph “Veiled women practice shooting on the outskirts of the city.” It is essentially just several women practicing their aim, but their matching black robes, their line formation, and the baronesses of their surrounding landscape makes this photo very well put together. The women in the photo are part of a female Iranian militia in the 80s, who fought in the Iran-Iraq war, so what makes this photo so powerful to me is its complete merging of beautiful imagery and historical record keeping.

I also enjoy the 1984 photograph “ Seagulls flying past the French trawler ‘Koros’.” Similarly to Gruyaert’s soap opera TV photo, this photo draws you in with the very ordinary—birds—being presented in a subtly off-putting, almost creepy way. Either something was done in post processing, or Gruyere used some kind of flash while shooting the birds in the dark, but the black background of the birds is strange and unnatural. Gruyere took this photo as part of a series on a fishing boat in Ireland, and like a lot of his work, these photos are classic examples of “the decisive moment.” The birds in “Koros” fill the frame so evenly and geometrically, with the size of the birds trailing off from the larges one in the bottom right corner. Like almost all of the photos that seem to interest me, this photo is cinematic, and seems to suggest a story. The birds are flying somewhere or away from something, and the beautiful way in which Gaumy shot them makes you want to know the answers.

G.B. & FRANCE. 1972. TV SHOTS Soap Opera. Couple

SOVIET UNION. Russia. Moscow. 1989.

IRAN. Tehran. 1986. Veiled women practice shooting on the outskirts of the city.

Seagulls flying past the French trawler “Koros”.

Overall, I think the Magnum website is well designed and easy to navigate. I think one of the most interesting aspects of the site is that they promote not only the work their photographers produce for Magnum but their commercial work as well.  For example, as I was browsing through the “latest stories” section of the website, I noticed a series by Alec Soth called Unselfies. The description reads “Soth Alec Soth recently explored the notion of the “selfie” by creating a series of “unselfies” for The New York Times Magazine”. The photos are, I assume, of Soth himself, but with his face distorted in some way. These photos stood out for me because they seemed so “un-magnum” as they are probably better defined as art photography rather than photojournalism. To me,this is a representation of how Magnum aims to promote the works of their photographers rather than the agency itself. Is it also show how the agency has adapted to the modern day. In the past, many of the Magnum photographers were repelled by the idea of doing commercial work. Toda

USA. 2015. Unselfie.y however, doing commercial work is essential to the survival to magnum photographers.

I also really like the themes tab of the website. This part of the website organizes photos from many different photographers in categories as different as “Cuba”, “water” and “the laugh”.

USA. 2015. Unselfie.

I like this because it allows the viewer to see a wide range of photographers work in a manageable way as well as see how different photographers approach similar subject matter. Overall, it seems that the most universal aspect of this varied group of photographers is a serious towards their subject matter and a desire to do so in an aesthetically pleasing way.

GREECE. Lesbos. 2015. Refugees and migrants arriving on Lesbos island are transferred to Moria refugee camp to registration from authorities before they can move on.

FRANCE. Paris. November 14, 2015. The day after the terror attacks.

YPJ members during their daily training in their base in Serikani.

SYRIA. Semalka Border. Rojava. Torin Khairegi, 18, in Zinar base.
“I joined YPJ about seven months ago, because I was looking for something meaningful in my life and my leader [Ocalan] showed me the way and my role in the society. We live in a world where women are dominated by men. We are here to take control of our own future. We are not merely fighting with arms; we fight with our thoughts. Ocalan’s ideology is always in our hearts and minds and it is with his thought that we become so empowered that we can even become better soldiers than men. When I am at the frontline, the thought of all the cruelty and injustice against women enrages me so much that I become extra-powerful in combat. I injured an ISIS jihadi in Kobane. When he was wounded, all his friends left him behind and ran away. Later I went there and buried his body. I now feel that I am very powerful and can defend my home, my friends, my country, and myself. Many of us have been matryred and I see no path other than the continuation of their path.”

I was also really drawn to the work of Newsha Tavakolian who is an Iranian photographer born in 1981. She is a self taught photographer who was working professionally for the Iranian press at the age of 16. She became a Magnum nominee last year. She recently did a series called The Women Taking the Battle to ISIS. One photo I really liked shows member of the YPJ (Kurdish Women’s protection unit) on base during training. The photo is taken far away and shows the women standing in the circle. What I like about the photo is that because of the way it is composed, there is something very mysterious about it. It makes you wonder what the women are up to and what they are discussing.

Also as part of the series,  Tavakolian took several more formal portraits with the women in the unit. These photos have extremely long captions like this one which reads SYRIA. Semalka Border. Rojava. Torin Khairegi, 18, in Zinar base.

“I joined YPJ about seven months ago, because I was looking for something meaningful in my life and my leader [Ocalan] showed me the way and my role in the society. We live in a world where women are dominated by men. We are here to take control of our own future. We are not merely fighting with arms; we fight with our thoughts. Ocalan’s ideology is always in our hearts and minds and it is with his thought that we become so empowered that we can even become better soldiers than men. When I am at the frontline, the thought of all the cruelty and injustice against women enrages me so much that I become extra-powerful in combat. I injured an ISIS jihadi in Kobane. When he was wounded, all his friends left him behind and ran away. Later I went there and buried his body. I now feel that I am very powerful and can defend my home, my friends, my country, and myself. Many of us have been matryred and I see no path other than the continuation of their path.” I really like this because it gives more context to the photos, as well as displays magnum’s desire to have more control than many news photographers about how their work is used and misused.  

Scrolling through the Magnum Photos website, I was struck by the sheer number of photographs that were stunningly brilliant. Normally when viewing a photography gallery or portfolio, there are a couple images that catch my eye and I leave with only a few images in mind. However, on the Magnum website, I could not find one image that I didn’t particularly take interest in, or considered unworthy of its revered status. While every photographer is capturing images of similar subject matters, either of political or historical significance, no two photos are even remotely similar, each collection and portfolio is incredibly diverse. What I can deduce from browsing through each photographer is that they are perhaps hired by Magnum because of their innate ability to capture dramatic moments, each containing a sense of heightened realism that invites the viewer to find every detail in the frame, providing layers of stories and emotions. Two photographers that caught my attention were Hiroji Kubota and Nikos Economopoulos, both of whom have captured images that are incredibly moving and that I found to have particular aspects to their photography that were notable.

Hiroji Kubota is a Japanese photographer whose work is largely concentrated in Japan, China, Taiwan, and North Korea, but has also worked in United States, most notably photographing the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and the March on Washington. He attended Waseda University and studied political science, and shortly after his graduation in 1962 he enrolled in the University of Chicago, where he met several Magnum photographers and started working as a freelancer. He was then discovered and became a Magnum member in 1965. He is the winner of numerous prestigious photographic awards including the Nendo Sho and the Mainichi Art Prize.

An aspect of Kubota’s works that I believe makes his style unique is his capturing of detail, often times in large groups or gatherings. For instance, in two images he shows female ship labors and male coal miners. In the photograph of the women, there is only one pair of eyes that can be seen under the protective masks that each worker is wearing as they clean an old ship, the temperature feels hot and uncomfortable. In the coal mine photograph, a long line of male workers sit inside railroad cars, cramped and tired, perhaps on their lunch break or at the end of a long day.  Both photographs, through different details, accomplish the same reaction: empathy with the workers and feelings of stress and tiredness. In his works taken in North Korea, his use of groups and scale often times imply a theme of sameness. He shows young girls at a dance class, young boys on a trolly ride, wealthy townsmen in a barber shop and government officials all bowing down to a statue of Kim II Sung. In each of these images, the subjects share an overwhelming cohesiveness, whether it be in dress, expression, or movement/positions, and this is enhanced by his frequent use of color film. What ultimately draws me to Kubota’s work is his uncanny ability to place himself in front of many people and manage to capture details that would seem otherwise impossible or too fleeting to spot.

Nikos Economopoulos is a Magnum photographer originally from Greece whose work is most apparent in his homeland of Greece as well as the Balkans. Originally a student of law, Economopoulos did not begin taking photographs till he was 25 years old, a late start for a career that usually begins at a young age. He was inspired by Cartier-Bresson and chose his first subject matter as the divide he saw between Greeks and Turks. He became affiliated with Magnum in 1990 and was in-house by 1994. He is also the winner of many prestigious awards including the Mother Jones Award for Documentary Photography, and currently resides in Athens where many of his works are on permanent display in Centre Méditerranéen de la Photographie and Benaki Museum in Corsica and Athens, respectively.

If there is one Magnum photographer who utilizes drama to it’s fullest potential, it just may be Economopoulos. His images appear as if they could have been staged, evoking emotions and visuals that are both surreal and visceral. His use of only black and white also enhances his dramatic style, allowing shadows and bright spots to be accentuated and noticed more than if they were in color. His portraits are what first caught my eye when browsing his works. In every photo he takes of another person or multiple subjects, there is something within the frame that is deeply intriguing. It may be a small detail such as the shape of their mouth, the motion of their hand, or the wrinkles in their skin. Some aspects are much more pronounced, such as a large wine stain around a cracked bottle on the street, with a woman attempting to find her balance, or an honest, contemplative, and concerned expression on a mother’s face as she looks at her child. Economopoulos’ most intriguing photograph to me was his image of a man at a political rally, with a butterfly on his shoulder. His expression is honest, and intense, and one can’t help but hope the butterfly landed there for a reason, just for a quick moment, perhaps encouraging/supporting the protestor, or giving him some good luck. Economopoulos’ photographs seem to have a life and story behind them and are in constant motion, with every frame I felt as if I was watching a stylized film, and this resulted in me being more interested with each image I saw.

– Tristan Oliveira

Turkey, Imvros island, Agridia village.
©Nikos Economopoulos-Magnum

Turkey, Yozgat.

ALBANIA. Mirdita region. Perlat village. The DONDA family “forgave” the blood and has reconciliated with the SULEYMANIS. But the women still mourn the recent deads. 1998.

ROMANIA. Alcoholic woman at Baia-Mare. 1990.

CHINA. Fushun. Liaoning Province. 1981. Strip coal mine.