Magnum's First - The First Magnum's Exhibition

Magnum’s First – The First Magnum’s Exhibition

Exibart Editorial Staff

On May 8th the exhibition “The first of Magnum” was opened at the Cloisters of Sant’Eustorgio in Milan, until October 2019.
Eight photo essays from the first group exhibition of the renowned photography agency Magnum are on display. For over 50 years these works were thought to be lost. It was not until the spectacular discovery in 2006 of the original set of works at the Institut Français in Innsbruck, Austria, that this exhibition could be displayed again.

The exhibition is curated by Andrea Holzherr in collaboration with Magnum and features works by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Erich Lessing, Werner Bischof, Inge Morath, and others. “Magnum’s first. Face of Time“ comprises over 80 vintage prints from the early days of independent photojournalism in their original form of presentation.

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JAPAN. Tokyo. Courtyard of the Meiji shrine. 1951.

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Authentic street scenes, genre pictures, and portraits avoid sensationalism and offer diverse insights into the history of the post-war period. The range of themes covered by the eight photo essays is surprisingly relevant to our present day. The essays tell the story of Gandhi’s death in India, socialism taking hold in Hungary, and the lavish film production of a Hollywood epic in Egypt.

Everyday scenes also feature in the exhibition, such as Erich Lessing’s ironic series about children in Vienna.
The exhibition premiere sparked a unique success story in the mid-1950s which was to coin photojournalism for almost half a century.