WeTransfer presents: With famous members like Robert Capa, Hen-

ri Cartier-Bresson and Erwitt Elliott, Magnum

is a unique kind of organisation. Its impact CONSTANTINE MANOS (BORN 1934)
can be seen through the visuals its members Im sure Magnum has the greatest photo-
put out over the years, shaping our views on graphic archive in the world. Not the biggest,
the world along the way. But this impact also but the richest and the most interesting, says
becomes clear through the incredible stories Constantine Manos, who joined the agency
shared by the photographers themselves. in 1964. At 83, Constantine is now one of the
oldest Magnum members.
The Magnum Manifesto includes photogra-
phers from every generation of Magnums He was first introduced to photography when
illustrious history. Its divided into three sec- he was only 15 years old. He discovered his
tions, each discussing a different era through schools darkroom and started shooting for
the eyes of Magnums members. We spoke the schools newspaper.
to three of those represented Constantine
Magnum Photos is one of the oldest and most prestigious photography Manos, Richard Kalvar and Olivia Arthur. 1952 was an important year, because then I
agencies in the world. This year marks its 70th anniversary, and to mark first read about this photographer Henri
Cartier-Bresson, Constantine says.
this milestone, there is a new book and exhibition celebrating the images
and the image-makers who have contributed to its success. Both Thames &
Hudsons book and the Magnum Manifesto show at the International Center of
Photography in New York provide an insight into the way the agency and its
photographers evolved over the past decades.
words by Suzanne Tromp HERBERT LIST.
EYES IN THE SKY.
PARIS, FRANCE.

ROBERT CAPA. W. EUGENE SMITH. WERNER BISCHOF.

FRENCH ELECTIONS, DR. CERIANI WITH LEE INTERNATIONAL PRESS
VOTER LEAVES MARIE WHEATLY, A TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS COVERING
CURTAINED VOTING AND A HALF YEAR OLD THE KOREAN WAR.
BOOTHS. CHILD WHO NEEDED KAESONG, SOUTH KOREA.
PARIS, FRANCE. EMERGENCY TREATMENT
AFTER HAVING BEEN
KICKED IN THE HEAD
WeTransfer presents: Magnum Manifesto 01/05 BY A HORSE.
COLORADO, USA.
 ON THIS PAGE:
CONSTANTINE MANOS.
DAUFUSKIE ISLAND.
SOUTH CAROLINA, USA (1952).

I read his philosophy and I saw some of his
pictures in a magazine. He doesnt allow crop-
ping and I learned about his concept of the
decisive moment. I thought, wow, this is for
me. This is what I want to do.
Constantine got himself a Leica and some
Ilford film (as used by his new hero Henri),
and set out for an island off the coast of South
Carolina, called Daufuskie. It had been a plan-
tation, and was still inhabited by descendants
of slaves.
I did a little essay about a ten-year-old boy,
who lived with an old couple he was an
orphan. This would turn into Constantines
first series of pictures, now showcased in the
Magnum Manifesto.
Id taken pictures before, but I didnt know
anything about good photography. Reading
about Cartier-Bresson changed my life.
And so when Constantine was 18, he took
the Greyhound bus from Colombia to New
York to visit the Magnum office and show his
pictures.
I met Cornell Capa there, and Cornell said,
Come lets have a drink. I had never been
in a bar before in my life, I had never had
a drink. So I said, Ill have whatever youre
having, and he was having scotch. So that was
my first drink, and Ive been drinking scotch
ever since.
After this encounter Constantine did some
smaller jobs for Magnum, but the project that
got him invited to join the agency was his
Greek Portfolio. His parents, who had emigrat-
ed from Greece to the US, always referenced
a village they came from. So Constantine
decided to visit their home country and shoot
daily life there.
I realised the best villages were the ones
that had no electricity. They were very prim-
itive and beautiful and simple. It was the old
Greece. It was like nothing had changed in
200 years, Constantine says.
He left a box of prints with the Magnum when
traveling through Paris. Back in Athens, he
was pleasantly surprised by a letter from the

DENNIS STOCK.
ON THE SET OF THE
PLANET OF THE APES.
CALIFORNIA, USA.
Id taken pictures before,
but I didnt know anything about good
RENE BURRI. LEONARD FREED.
photography. Reading about MARC RIBOUD. ERNESTO GUEVARE MARTIN LUTHER KING.
PHOTOGRAPHERS RALLY. (CHE), ARGENTINIAN BALTIMORE,
Cartier-Bresson changed my life. KARUIZAWA, JAPAN. POLITICIAN, MINISTER MARYLAND, USA
OF INDUSTRY (1961-1965)
DURING AN EXCLUSIVE
INTERVIEW IN HIS
OFFICE.
WeTransfer presents: Magnum Manifesto 02/05 HAVANA, CUBA.

famous agency. It said, Dear Constantine,
we have just had our annual meeting and you
are invited to become an associate member.
Of course I was thrilled to death.
Constantine is a traditional photographer in
the sense that he truly believes in the voice of
the person taking the picture. He says though,
with the overabundance of cameras nowa-
days, everyone thinks they are a photographer.
They are photographers, of course, but it is
very difficult to be an exceptional one. There
are a lot of people looking for a gimmick,
making a picture different for its own sake.
He finds this problematic because, youre
tampering with the truth. And youre tamper-
ing with believability, which is one of the great
qualities of photography.
MARC RIBOUD.
A YOUNG AMERICAN GIRL, JAN ROSE
KASMIR, CONFRONTS THE AMERICAN
NATIONAL GUARD OUTSIDE THE
PENTAGON DURING THE 1967 ANTI-
VIETNAM MARCH.
WASHINGTON DC, USA.
WeTransfer presents: Magnum Manifesto 03/05
ON THIS PAGE:
RICHARD KALVAR.
OKLAHOMA SENATOR FRED HARRIS
CAMPAIGNING FOR THE DEMOCRATIC
PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION, SHAKING
HANDS WITH PEOPLE ENTERING THE
SUBWAY.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, USA (1976).
He became a Magnum member in 1977, after a
slight misunderstanding in which he thought
I think the best pictures are like poems, he was in, only to find there was a final hurdle
theyre things in your head, in your memory to clear. No matter, he was approved and even
bank, in your brain. went on to serve as the agencys president for
a time.
I think the decisive moment is very important
in a picture; a successful photograph is a His work in the Magnum Manifesto is a series
surprise. They should exist for their own sake. of pictures taken in a Boston subway station
They should be something that give people during Fred Harris unsuccessful 1976 elec-
pleasure and enriches their lives. toral campaign. People would come by and
shake his hand, and then another person
RICHARD KALVAR (BORN 1944) and another person. There was a certain
Richard Kalvar can be best described as a ridiculousness to the situation which
street photographer. Whether hes shooting became interesting.
in Rome, Paris or New York, his photos show
a mix of ordinary life and ambiguous story-
telling at first glance they seem to depict a
normal scene, but at closer inspection theres
an extra layer hidden in the pictures.
I think the decisive moment is very
important in a picture; a successful
PAUL FUSCO. MARILYN SILVERSTONE. LEONARD FREED
ROBERT KENNEDY VILLAGERS LOOKING AT SLIDES A MAN TAKEN INTO photograph is a surprise. They should
FUNERAL TRAIN. OF THEMSELVES. CUSTODY IN A POLICE
PHILADELPHIA, USA. YUMTHANG, NORTH SIKKIM, INDIA CAR. exist for their own sake.
NEW YORK CITY, USA.

The result is a series of repetitive photos of
the candidate in the same position, shaking
peoples hands. Each photograph in itself is
not great, but when you put them in sequence
it creates this absurdist vibe, Richard ex-
plains.
Yet, Richard is actually drawn to try and con-
vey a story within a single image. In general
I don't tell stories with a series of pictures,
where each picture tells a different aspect, he
says.
What interests me is when each picture tells
a story; you can take it out of its context and
it has a life of its own that goes beyond the
obvious descriptive type of photography.
It's kind of playing with this idea
of what reality is. I'm working on
the edge of reality.
WeTransfer presents: Magnum Manifesto 04/05
OLIVIA ARTHUR.
THE REMNANTS OF THE MV
DARA WRECK WHICH LIES IN
20M OF WATER OFF THE COAST
OF DUBAI, AND HAS BECOME
COVERED IN FISHING NETS.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB
EMIRATES (2013).
Thats why street photography appeals to him.
On the streets an encounter with someone is
short, so you dont have the time to grasp who
a person exactly is and what they do. I can
let myself go a little bit, because I'm not say-
ing what these people are like, Richard says.
Im showing my first impression, so I don't
really feel a big responsibility.
This means he doesnt shy away from adding
multiple interpretations to events through
his imagery. I like to be very ambiguous so
you don't know what's going on. It looks like
something is happening and it's not necessari-
ly happening, he says.
It's kind of playing with this idea of what
reality is. I'm working on the edge of reality.
STEVE MCCURRY.
MAN IN WHEELCHAIR
READS TO BOY.
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN.
OLIVIA ARTHUR (BORN 1980)
Olivia Arthur is one of the younger genera-
tion photographers whos represented in the
Magnum Manifesto. She was first introduced
to the agency in 2002 when she won the Inge
Morath Award, established as a tribute to the
pioneering female photographer.
Its quite famously a very male agency, says
Olivia. Theres definitely an awareness about
this within the whole community of Magnum.
There are a lot of young female photogra-
phers out there, and theres no reason why we
shouldnt be taking them on.
Olivia had just started her career when she
became a member in 2008. Some people
OLIVIA ARTHUR. come to the agency when theyre more estab-
WORKERS TAKE A BREAK lished but a lot of people join when they are
FROM A CONSTRUCTION SITE
quite young and thats encouraged, she says.
IN DUBAI BUSINESS BAY. OLIVIA ARTHUR.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB STEPS INTO THE WATER You grow with the agency. Its the idea of the
EMIRATES (2014). ON THE DUBAI CREEK. big family.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB
EMIRATES (2013).
BRUNO BARBEY
GULF WAR. BURGAN OIL FIELDS. U.S. MARINES
POSE FOR A PHOTO IN FRONT OF A BURNED
VEHICLE CONTAINING A CHARRED CORPSE.
KUWAIT .
MARTIN PARR
JURMALA.
LATVIA.
 Olivia says she became more confident
playing around with her photography after
becoming part of the Magnum community.
Stranger, her first series at the agency and
the one included in the manifesto, pushes
the idea of the mediums role from merely
documenting a moment, towards it becoming
more of a narrative art form.
Stranger depicts the past and the present of
Dubai. People never speak about the history
of Dubai, they always talk about the future
what it will be. No one ever looked at how
this place became what it is.
While researching Dubais history, she came
across a story about a shipwreck in 1961, off
the citys coast. Theres this family who lost
their son in the shipwreck but believed he was
A. ABBAS.
FAMILIES SEARCHING FOR THEIR LOVED
ONES, WHO HAVE DISAPPEARED DURING
THE US BOMBING, EXHIBIT THEIR PHOTOS
OVER MAKESHIFT GRAVES DUG IN THE
GARDEN OF A HOSPITAL.
BAGHDAD, IRAQ.
WeTransfer presents: Magnum Manifesto 05/05
still alive. To this day they still search for him;
they place ads every now and then to try and
find him.
Struck by this tale, she came up with a fic-
tional character of a young passenger who
survived the disaster. This is when it became
conceptional: imagine if someone ended up
on an island somewhere in the Gulf, and they
come to the city now how would they see
it?
And so the project shows the city as if seen
through the eyes of this stranger, reflecting
the feeling of alienation Olivia felt when first
wandering the streets of Dubai. Nobody feels
like they properly belong. Theres this feeling
of isolation and chaos.
MARTIN PARR.
ST. PETER'S SQUARE.
FROM TUTTA ROMA.
ROME, ITALY.
Olivia acknowledges some of her peers might
find her work experimental, but she feels the
core of her work is actually quite traditional.
It starts out with a concept which is a
made up concept of a fictional character but
thats just a vehicle. Its essentially a docu-
mentary project about Dubai.
The photos are compiled in a book with
transparent paper, allowing readers to see
multiple images at once. Next to that she
mixes old maps and text snippets from inter-
views with locals in with her photos, cleverly
combining the past with the present.
pher.
OLIVIA ARTHUR. ALEX MAJOLI.
A COUPLE PHOTOGRAPH MASS GRAVES OF REBEL
THEMSELVES ON THEIR MOBILE SOLDIERS KILLED BY
PHONE IN FRONT OF THE QADDAFI. IT IS BELIEVED
CASPIAN SEA. BY HUMAN RIGHTS
RAMSAR, IRAN. GROUPS THAT MANY MORE
BODIES HAVE YET TO BE
DISCOVERED.
JANZOUR, LIBYA.
Im not at all afraid of mixing texts with pho-
tography. If theyre used in the right way, they
can enhance each other in a wonderful way,
she says.
Some people can bring a whole story in one
image, but for me it is about these series of
narratives. Its about putting things together;
the ability to tell something more, to tell a
story.
70 YEARS OF MAGNUM
Across the work of Constantine, Richard and
Olivia we see and hear different ideas about
the role of both a photograph and a photogra-
But whatever position the Magnum members
take, there is it seems a common thread that
unites them. I think we all make work that
looks at things going on in the world, whether
theyre large events or tiny, micro, one-family
one-person stories, Olivia says.
Constantine agrees. One of the greatest,
most important subjects Magnum has cap-
tured from the beginning is humanity. It is
people. Ordinary people.