Reading Magnum: A Visual Archive of the Modern World

Author:   Steven Hoelscher ,  Geoff Dyer ,  Harry Ransom Center
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Edition:   annotated edition
ISBN:  

9780292748439


Pages:   352
Publication Date:   01 September 2013
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Reading Magnum: A Visual Archive of the Modern World


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Overview

The Magnum Photos archive-a collection of more than 200,000 photographs by some of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries' greatest image makers-is the most comprehensive accumulation of prints made by the distinguished photo cooperative. Consistently and with striking artistry, Magnum's photographers have done more than simply document the far reaches of the globe; they have helped shape generations' understanding of the world around them. While many of its photographs have been widely published, until now no one has examined the Magnum archive itself. In Reading Magnum, experts from several fields investigate this visual archive, now residing at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, to discover how a select, influential group of visual authors has used the camera for an ambitious project of cultural interpretation and social commentary. The chapters in Reading Magnum are devoted to themes generated by a close reading of the archive-war and conflict, portraiture, geography, cultural life, social relations, and globalization. These themes are further developed by evocative portfolios of images, which suggest something of the depth and range of the photo agency, and by tracing the trajectory of several iconic images from annotated press print to distribution to eventual publication. Volume editor Steven Hoelscher provides an overview of the Magnum enterprise, and Alison Nordstroem offers an appreciation of the Magnum archive as a material record of information about the making and disseminating of photographs that is being lost as images on paper are replaced by images on screen. As a whole, the book's unique reading of the Magnum archive reveals patterns of intention, aesthetic vision, and political perspective that become legible only by viewing both the physical objects and the recorded images that constitute this remarkable collection.

Full Product Details

Author:   Steven Hoelscher ,  Geoff Dyer ,  Harry Ransom Center
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Imprint:   University of Texas Press
Edition:   annotated edition
Dimensions:   Width: 24.10cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 26.70cm
Weight:   1.987kg
ISBN:  

9780292748439


ISBN 10:   0292748434
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   01 September 2013
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Foreword (Geoff Dyer) Introduction. Decisive Moments and Caustic Comments: Reading the Magnum Archive (Steven Hoelscher) 1. On Becoming an Archive (Alison Nordstroem) Notes from the Archive: Philip Jones Griffiths's Vietnam Inc. 2. War and Conflict through Magnum's Eyes (Barbie Zelizer) War and Conflict Portfolio Notes from the Archive: Eve Arnold's Black Muslims 3. The Face Redrawn: Magnum Portraits (Frank H. Goodyear III) Portraiture Portfolio Notes from the Archive: Alex Webb's Crossings: Photographs from the U.S.-Mexico Border 4. Magnum's Geographies: Toward a Progressive Sense of Place (Steven Hoelscher) Geography Portfolio Notes from the Archive: Susan Meiselas's Carnival Strippers 5. Hollywood Stars, High-Paid Llamas, and Car Shows: Magnum's Cultural Project (Erika Doss) Cultural Life Portfolio Notes from the Archive: Cornell Capa's Attica 6. Seeing the Stranger in the Mirror: Everyday Life in Magnum's Public World (Robert Hariman) Social Relations Portfolio Notes from the Archive: David Chim Seymour's Children of Europe 7. Magnum's Global Enterprise (Liam Kennedy) Globalization Portfolio Acknowledgments Contributors Illustration Credits Index

Reviews

There are more than 200,000 photographs just from the New York office of Magnum, the legendary photo cooperative (Magnum has four offices around the globe). Drawing from that archive, American Studies scholar Steven Hoelscher and other contributors mine the images (of war, social upheaval, celebrities: you name it) for insight into how photography has influenced our world, and vice-versa. With photos from major photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Robert Capa, among others. - Kirkus In Reading Magnum: A Visual Archive of the Modern World - which Photo Magazine recently named Book of the Year, - Hoelscher and a team of seven international scholars offer an in-depth account of the Magnum photographs as they are shuffled around from one publication to another and viewed in a wide range of contexts. - Life and Letters


""There are more than 200,000 photographs just from the New York office of Magnum, the legendary photo cooperative (Magnum has four offices around the globe). Drawing from that archive, American Studies scholar Steven Hoelscher and other contributors mine the images (of war, social upheaval, celebrities: you name it) for insight into how photography has influenced our world, and vice-versa. With photos from major photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Robert Capa, among others."" - Kirkus ""In Reading Magnum: A Visual Archive of the Modern World - which Photo Magazine recently named Book of the Year, - Hoelscher and a team of seven international scholars offer an in-depth account of the Magnum photographs as they are shuffled around from one publication to another and viewed in a wide range of contexts."" - Life and Letters ""This book has seven definitive chapters as well as an introduction that offers us an overview of how the archive might be read. Some of the chapters deal with particular genres: portraits, war, celebrity shots; while other cover generic subjects: globalization, everyday life, geography, and a sense of place. They are all lavishly and appropriately illustrated [...] All the chapters are well researched and interestingly written and provide a useful introduction to the superb body of work contained within the archive."" - Exposure ""Each chapter begins with an authoritative interpretative text, followed by a picture portfolio that often includes data regarding the original assignments or their first appearance in published form [...] it is a meaningful accompaniment to monographs on the individual photographers. Summing Up: Recommended"" - Choice


There are more than 200,000 photographs just from the New York office of Magnum, the legendary photo cooperative (Magnum has four offices around the globe). Drawing from that archive, American Studies scholar Steven Hoelscher and other contributors mine the images (of war, social upheaval, celebrities: you name it) for insight into how photography has influenced our world, and vice-versa. With photos from major photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Robert Capa, among others. - Kirkus In Reading Magnum: A Visual Archive of the Modern World - which Photo Magazine recently named Book of the Year, - Hoelscher and a team of seven international scholars offer an in-depth account of the Magnum photographs as they are shuffled around from one publication to another and viewed in a wide range of contexts. - Life and Letters This book has seven definitive chapters as well as an introduction that offers us an overview of how the archive might be read. Some of the chapters deal with particular genres: portraits, war, celebrity shots; while other cover generic subjects: globalization, everyday life, geography, and a sense of place. They are all lavishly and appropriately illustrated [...] All the chapters are well researched and interestingly written and provide a useful introduction to the superb body of work contained within the archive. - Exposure Each chapter begins with an authoritative interpretative text, followed by a picture portfolio that often includes data regarding the original assignments or their first appearance in published form [...] it is a meaningful accompaniment to monographs on the individual photographers. Summing Up: Recommended - Choice


Author Information

Steven Hoelscher is a Professor of American Studies and Geography at the University of Texas at Austin and Academic Curator of Photography at the Harry Ransom Center. His books include Picturing Indians: Photographic Encounters and Tourist Fantasies in H. H. Bennett's Wisconsin Dells and Textures of Place: Exploring Humanist Geographies.

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