For some time, a myth about Magnum Photos swirled around photography circles. It was said that the world’s most prestigious photo agency—founded in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David “Chim” Seymour—was named after an enormous bottle of champagne. Legend had it that the bottle was enjoyed during a celebratory lunch at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, in the sculpture garden.
Though untrue, the story captures the founders’ spirit. In 1947, the evils of W.W. II were still raw. Cartier-Bresson had endured three years in a German internment camp; Rodger had escaped Japanese soldiers through a Burmese rainforest; Seymour’s Polish-Jewish parents were murdered by the Nazis; and Capa’s partner Gerda Taro was killed by a tank during the Spanish Civil War. Still licking their wounds, the men set out to capture America’s rebirth.
The mid-1940s were a charged time. The U.S. was coming into its own as a global leader, the U.S. Marshall Plan was helping Europe to rebuild, and the arms race was beginning. And there were issues at home. Magnum photographers such as Wayne Miller captured postwar social problems, documenting neglected Black communities and derelict apartments on Chicago’s South Side.
The 1950s, marked by consumerism, luxury cars, and Marilyn Monroe, saw one of Magnum’s first female photographers, Inge Morath, capturing Upper East Side ladies in fur, strolling with their poodles. W. Eugene Smith, in contrast, focused on the gritty reality of steelworkers in Pittsburgh.
Eve Arnold, who joined Magnum in 1957, documented America’s migrant workers and civil-rights leaders until the 1980s, when her focus became more global. In The Unretouched Woman (1976), she wrote, “If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given.”
Magnum photographers do care. Since the early 2000s, Bruce Gilden, Larry Towell, and others have captured the war on terror in the Middle East, the rise of crippling addiction in America’s rural communities, and changes wrought by social media.
This book, Magnum America: The United States, arranges some of the world’s best photography decade by decade up to the present day. Most of the 50 states appear in its pages, alongside scenes from the country’s military adventures—and misadventures—abroad. With America set to re-enter another Trump presidency, what might this 77-year chronicle teach us about the MAGA darkness that lies ahead? —Elena Clavarino
Elena Clavarino is a Senior Editor at Air Mail
