In the early days of Magnum’s inception, founding member Henri Cartier-Bresson famously used contact sheets as a means of critiquing the younger members work. This exciting new exhibition will give audiences remarkable access and insight into the decision-making processes of many of Magnum’s famous members, through the inclusion of first-person accounts.

Magnum Contact Sheets sets out to illustrate the traditional role of the contact sheet within Magnum’s working archive, as the main source of reference for the picture agency’s editors.

Often compared to an artist’s sketchbook, the contact sheet is the photographer’s first look at what he or she has captured; a sense of walking alongside that photographer and seeing through their eyes. With the development of digital technologies and their huge impact on photographic production, this exploration of the analogue editing process sets out to both investigate and celebrate an approach that is becoming increasingly historic; an ‘epitaph’ in the words of Martin Parr.

The exhibition will reproduces work from over seventy years of visual history including the D-Day landings by Robert Capa, the 1968 Paris riots by Bruno Barbey, Robert Kennedy’s funeral by Paul Fusco, the Vietnam war by Philip Jones Griffiths and 9/11 by Thomas Hoepker. It showcases iconic portraiture of political figures, actors, artists and musicians, from Che Guevara and Malcolm X, to Miles Davies and The Beatles.

Magnum Contact Sheets presents approximately 70 contact sheets together with the accompanying final image, representing the full collective of photographers including pioneers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, René Burri, Philippe Halsman and Elliott Erwitt, through to modern greats such as Jim Goldberg, Alec Soth, Paolo Pellegrin and Trent Parke.

Contact sheets and photographs are accompanied by close-up details, articles, books and magazine spreads.

Curator: Gabriella Csizek, artistic collaborator, curator, Hungarian House of Photography – in Mai Manó House

The exhibition is open to the public: until 24 August 2014

Source: Capa Center
Address: 8 Nagymező Streeet, 1065 Budapest, Hungary

Telephone number:
+36 1 413 1310

Opening hours: every day: 11am – 7pm

Admission Fees:

Adults: 1500 HUF Students and seniors: 800 HUF For groups: 20% discount
Family ticket: 3000 HUF
Free admission for all exhibitions: children under the age of 6 visitors over 70 years of age