An exhibition of photographs from the Magnum Press Agency opened in the French National Library in Paris on February 10th 2000. The 53-year-old Photo agency also inaugurated new offices in the French capital while this exhibition stirred a controversy on the works of its reporters, notably whether they should be considered as artists like Henri Cartier-Bresson, who was one of its leading figures.
The Magnum archives are surely a marvellous treasure with shots from cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Seymour, Rodger, Erwitt, Bischof, Depardon, Freed or Barbey.
Cartier-Bresson's snapshots prove that photo-journalism somewhat flirted with art and Magnum's inauguration of a cultural department in 1988 show that 30% of its annual turnover come from this set-up. It is a fact that the world of photography has been playing a tremendous role for the past ten years on the art market but the border between reporting and art seems hard to define.
There have already been some fifty Magnum exhibitions around the world during the past five years and the name of Magnum appears to be magic. All the more many books with hundreds of shots that have been published have met considerable success.
The agency's cultural department has a $ 1,2 million budget to organise exhibitions each year while it sells duplicates like a gallery. Magnum has one million photographs in stock and the influence of Cartier-Bresson over its activities remains strong meaning that it has kept a close relationship with the past. It was only with the arrival of British photographer Martin Parr in 1994 with buoyant colors applied to trivial subjects that Magnum incurred some changes. Still many good photographers are not willing to work with Magnum which keeps a sharp eye on reality.
Diane Auberger, head of Magnum France, believes that the border between artists and photographers has become slimmer despite the fact that none of its photographers is considered as being a contemporary artist. Many art critics thus believe that all these magnum exhibition do not serve the artistic cause notwithstanding the fact that the artistic world might force those photographers employed by the agency to determine themselves as responsible artists, as Raymond Depardon pointed out in an interview with the daily le Monde published on February 9th. He notably added that these photographers will have to choose between art and press reporting stressing that Magnum had reached the deep end of a system and calling for the creation of a Magnum Foundation to make individual projects possible.
Some 420 photographs taken by 56 photographers are being shown in the Magnum exhibition, due to last in the French National Library, rue de Richelieu in Paris until May 7th. They are related to three themes, Rituals, Chaos (wars, pollution, diseases) and Daily Life. There are in fact too many exhibitors and as a result not enough exemplary works to show. In addition, there is a clash between strictly press shots and those which tend to have an artistic meaning and finally visitors come out from this exhibition with mixed feelings. As a conclusion, photo-journalism has often little to do with art.
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