Nel 2022 si festeggia il 75° anniversario di MagnumPhotos, una delle agenzie fotografiche più importanti al mondo, che negli anni ha raccolto un archivio di immagini dei più importanti eventi e personaggi della storia. Per celebrare questo traguardo Magnum ha annunciato una vendita inedita di 70 stampe d’archivio in formato 14×14, in esclusiva dal 14 al 20 marzo. La vendita si chiamerà “Precedents” e anticipa quelle di giugno e ottobre intitolate “Magnum 75” e “Vital Signs”. Sono stati gli stessi fotografi di Magnum a selezionare gli scatti in vendita (100€ il prezzo) scegliendo tra immagini simboliche o punti di partenza di un racconto che può essere completato da altre foto dell’archivio. I volti di Martin Luther King Jr, AudreyHepburn o JoeBiden sono solo alcuni attraverso i quali Magnum Photos racconta pagine di storia della politica e dello spettacolo.
USA. New York City. 1957. Queen ELIZABETH II on her visit to America.SOUTH AFRICA. Johannesburg. Nelson MANDELA, leader of the African National Congress Party, in his office. 1993.BURMA. Shan States. World War II. A leg rower propels his canoe over Inle Lake. 1942.American Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968) gives a press conference regarding an agreement reached on a ‘limited desegregation plan’ outside the A.G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama, February 1963. Taking notes behind Luther King is his speechwriter Clarence B. Jones.(Photo by Ernst Haas/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
L’agenzia fondata nel 1947 da Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour, George Rodger e William Vandivert non darà più l’opportunità di acquistare queste fotografie nelle vendite in programma per quest’anno. I fotografi hanno scelto per “precedenti” scatti simbolo di un inizio, letterale o simbolico, inteso come l’origine di qualcosa dal quale tutto è cambiato, compresa la carriera stessa degli artisti. Tra i nomi ci sono Alec Soth, Matt Black, Cristina de Middel, Inge Morath, Harry Gruyaert, Hannah Price, Sabiha Cimen, Marilyn Silverstone, Khalik Allah, Thomas Hoepker e Olivia Arthur, ma anche uno scatto dei Beatles realizzato da David Hurn o un ritratto di MarleneDietrich fotografata da Eve Arnold alla Columbia Records nel 1952.
USA. NYC. 1979.USA. American actress Marilyn MONROE on the set of “The Misfits”, directed by John HUSTON. 1960.SOUTH AFRICA. 1960s. Contract-expired miners are on the right, carrying their discharge papers and wearing “European” clothes while new recruits, many in tribal blankets, are on the left.RUSSIA, Northcaucasus, Daghestan, 1997. Wire Walking Village.AUSTRIA. Vienna. 1944.
From the photo-essay on “Praüscher’s Panoptikum” at the Prater. A grotesque chamber of horrors dating from 1870, it contained wax figures of historical personages, inventions, events, crimes, illenesses, and anatomical depictions. It was already banned at this time, and by the end of the war had been pretty much demolished by the SS.G.B. NORTHERN IRELAND. Londonderry. Ten years after the arrival of British troops in the province. The barricades are once more dividing Catholics and Protestants in areas of Belfast and Londonderry. Children eating their ice creams while soldiers patrol the streets of Londonderry. 1979.WORLD WAR II. The Pacific Campaign. February 1945. The Battle of Iwo Jima (Japanese island). US Marine demolition team blasting out a cave on Hill 382.USA. New York City. Harlem. 2012.TUNISIA. Jendouba. Ain Drahim. 16 November 2019.
A rooster.USA. New York. 1954. Jewish Hassidic wedding.G.B. ENGLAND. LONDON. The BEATLES during filming of ‘A Hard Days Night’. The Beatles film was primarily shot on a moving train. The four Beatles running on train platform. 1964.USA. New York City. Marlene Dietrich at the recording studios of COLUMBIA RECORDS, who were releasing most of her songs she had performed for the troops during World War II, including LILI MARLENE, Miss Otis Regrets.She was 51 years old and starting a come-back in show business.It was a wet and cold November night and work could only begin at midnight, at the advise of Marlene’s astrologer. November 1952.Drum Scans by Laumont, March 17th 2011American Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968) gives a press conference regarding an agreement reached on a ‘limited desegregation plan’ outside the A.G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama, February 1963. Taking notes behind Luther King is his speechwriter Clarence B. Jones.(Photo by Ernst Haas/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
