DAY 262

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Magnum and Photo Collectives

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

A photographer’s collective is a group of photographers (often photojournalists) who unite as a way of mutually supporting individual projects and promoting their work. The support that comes from being part of a group allows individual artists freedom to pursue particular topics of interest even if a client has not contracted the work. Once in the group, members contribute funds to a joint account, which can be accessed to finance travel or other professional expenses. Group members also establish editorial and business policies about their organization and often participate in a profit-sharing arrangement.

One of the first and best known of these groups is Magnum photos, founded in Paris in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and George Rodger (see page 80). Beyond maintaining a staff that includes current top photojournalists, Magnum (with offices New York, London and Tokyo) maintains a massive library of more than one million images by its members and others, which it licenses to the press, publishers, advertising, television, galleries, and museums around the world.

Another prominent agency, Black Star, was founded in New York City in 1935 by three German Jews, Kurt Safranski, Kurt Kornfeld, and Ernest Mayer, who fled the Nazis with a huge stockpile of prints. When LIFE magazine started in 1936, Black Star photographers became regular contributors. The company still exists today, primarily working with the corporate world. —DJG