The international agency Magnum Photosfounded in 1947 by the fathers of documentary photography, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour and George Rodgerhas been awarded this Wednesday with the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord 2024.
The photographers of Magnum They have documented most of the most important events of the 20th century, including the Normandy landings, the riots in Paris in May 1968, the civil rights movements and the 9/11 attacks, and they have portrayed personalities from all areas.
As detailed in the jury report that was released today in Oviedo, Magnum has been distinguished for her “iconic and demanding” photojournalism work extended over almost eight decades in which she has been “an example of press freedom and risk-taking.”
The agency, the first cooperative in the world of photography, has offices in New York, London and Paris from which it distributes its material to the media, publishing houses, charities, brands and cultural institutions.
Magnum Photos was created in 1947 by the Hungarian-born photographer Endre Ernö Friedmannknown as Robert Capawhich materialized his project of founding a journalistic photography agency as a cooperative whose members had total independence, in order to preserve the copyright on their works and market them.
Considered one of the most prestigious international photography agencies in the world, its four founding partners, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymourfollowers of the German pioneers of photojournalism, have gone down in history as the fathers of this discipline.
The list of cooperative members of the agency, past and present, includes some of the most important photojournalists, whose images have appeared in publications, such as newspapers The New York Times, Le Monde, The Figaro, Sunday, Guardian and Corriere della Sera or magazines Paris Match, National Geographic, Fortune, life and Geo.
Most of them have had individual exhibitions in institutions around the world, such as the National Library of Paris and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), among other.
In the agency’s archives, with more than a million photographs, there are the only ones that exist of the Normandy landings, the work of Robert Capa; snapshots of Malcolm X’s speeches, captured by Eve Arnoldand images of Fidel Castro’s entry into Havana in 1959, taken by Burt Glinn.
In 2007 the agency created the Magnum Foundationaimed at granting scholarships to photographers and preserving its historical archive, and began a collaboration with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malariawith which an international team of photographers traveled to nine countries to document the effects of antiretroviral treatments on AIDS patients.
The result was Access to Lifea traveling exhibition inaugurated in 2008 in Washington and that could be seen in Madrid, Oslo, Rome and Oakland.
In 2010 Magnum sold his collection of printed photographs – to which he retains the copyright – to the computer magnate Michael Dellwho later bequeathed the file to Harry Ransom Center from the University of Texas for its conservation and cataloguing.
The agency, whose presidency is held by the Spanish Christina of Middelis also committed to training independent photojournalists and visual storytellers, for which it organizes educational activities.
In the exhibitions in which it regularly participates or organizes, the agency shows special interest in addressing social issues, such as sustainability, offsetting the carbon footprint, or gender equality.
In 2022, the year in which it celebrated its 75th anniversary, it focused on the armed conflict in Ukraine with initiatives such as the launch of a sale of photographs about armed conflicts, the profits of which were destined to the International Committee of the Red Cross to support the protection of life and human dignity in Ukraine and other war-affected places.
The photographers of Magnum have received awards such as World Press Photohe W. Eugene Smith of Humanistic Photography and the Foreign Press Club Award.
Magnum Photos received 2020 Leadership of the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum and grant the Inge Morath Award.
Fountain: EFE.
Photos: EFE/ Morell; EFE/ Biel Aliño.
