Reading Magnum: A Visual Archive of the Modern World (Harry Ransom Center Photography Series)
"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