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Book Cover
E-book
Author Bair, Nadya, 1983- author.

Title The decisive network Magnum Photos and the postwar image market Nadya Bair
Published Oakland, California University of California Press [2020]
©2020

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Description 1 online resource (322 pages) illustrations (some color)
Contents Introduction -- Photo agencies and the Magnum model -- Human interest stories from the postwar world -- Freelancing for Life -- Traveling for Holiday -- Shooting for corporations -- Magnum systems, Magnum mythologies -- Conclusion : the Magnum archive
Summary "Since its founding in 1947, the legendary Magnum Photos agency has been telling its own story: Its photographers were concerned witnesses to history and artists on the hunt for decisive moments; their pictures were humanist documents of the postwar world. Based in unprecedented archival research, The Decisive Network peels back layers of the Magnum mythology to offer a new history of what it meant to shoot, edit, and sell news images after World War II. Between the 1940s and 1960s, Magnum expanded the human-interest story -- about the everyday life of ordinary people -- to global dimensions while bringing the aesthetic of news pictures into new markets. Its best-known work started as humanitarian aid promotion, travel campaigns, corporate publicity, and advertising. Working with this range of clients, Magnum made photojournalism integral to visual culture. Yet Magnum's photographers could not have done this alone. This book unpacks the collaborative nature of photojournalism as it transpired on a daily basis, focusing on how picture editors, sales agents, spouses, and publishers helped Magnum photographers succeed in their assignments and achieve fame. The Decisive Network concludes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when, amidst the decline of magazine publishing and the rise of an art market for photography, Magnum turned to photo books and exhibitions to manage its growing picture archives and consolidate its brand. In that moment, Magnum's photojournalists became artists and their assignments turned into oeuvres. Such ideas were necessary publicity, and they also managed to shape discussions about photography for decades. Bridging art history, media studies, cultural history, and the history of communication, this book transforms our understanding of the photographic profession and the global circulation of images in the pre-digital world"-- Provided by publisher
Notes "Ahmanson Murphy fine arts imprint"
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Nadya Bair is a Getty/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Art
Print version record
Subject Magnum Photos.
SUBJECT Magnum Photos fast
Subject Documentary photography -- History -- 20th century
Photography -- Marketing -- Social aspects
Photojournalism -- Social aspects
PHOTOGRAPHY -- Photojournalism.
Documentary photography
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2019036756
ISBN 9780520971790
0520971795
Other Titles Magnum Photos and the postwar image market