Magnum Contact Sheets

Eve Arnold, Bruno Barbey, Jonas Bendiksen, Werner Bischoff, René Burri, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, Thomas Hoepker, Josef Koudelka, Herbert List, Susan Meiselas, Inge Morath, Martin Parr, Paolo Pellegrin, Gilles Peress, Marc Riboud, George Rodger, David Seymour (Chim), Alec Soth

The decisive moment – in photography, this is what determines everything – a synthesis of knowledge, sensibility, technique, form, chance, and pure intuition. The contact sheet documents not only the birth of a picture, but provides intimate insight into the working process. Its sequences testify to photography’s claim to a transparent representation of reality.
Making the raw material public, however, is an absolute taboo. Its publication is usually not intended, and it remains hidden in the files of the studio or darkroom. When a photographer reveals her method, she makes herself vulnerable and risks depriving the creative process and the aura of the individual image of its mystique. This is what makes it all the more courageous when Magnum offers a rare insightinto over one hundred contact sheets by the most renowned photographers worldwide – including Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Chim, Werner Bischof, Elliott Erwitt, Inge Morath, René Burri, Eve Arnold, Thomas Hoepker, Josef Koudelka, Gilles Peress, Martine Franck, Martin Parr, Jonas Bendiksen, Bruno Barbey, Paolo Pellegrin, and Alec Soth.