The Magnum Digest: October 28, 2021
Two new shows at the Magnum Galleries in London and Paris, Bruce Davidson and Alec Soth recognised by the RPS and much more
Bruce Davidson and Alec Soth Recognized in the RPS Awards 2021
Magnum’s Bruce Davidson and Alec Soth have been recognized by the UK’s Royal Photographic Society in its annual awards. Now in its 143rd year, the awards celebrate individuals working across both still and moving image across 18 categories.
The Centenary Medal went to Bruce Davidson, a Magnum photographer since 1958, “for his sustained and significant contribution to photography”, the RPS citing Davidson’s photo-essays and documentary work focused on counter-culture communities.
A full member of Magnum Photos since 2008, Alec Soth was awarded an RPS Honorary Fellowship for his “exceptional and innovative work”. “Photography is a language and a lineage that’s been developed over nearly two centuries,” said Soth. “To be recognized by one of the oldest and most prestigious organizations in photography’s long lineage is a great honor.”
Chris Steele-Perkins discusses archiving on Canon’s Shutter Stories podcast
Chris Steele-Perkins, a Magnum photographer since 1979, has appeared on Canon’s Shutter Stories podcast. The episode, ‘Revisiting an archive, with Chris Steele-Perkins’ can be found here or on whatever podcast app you usually use.
For his new book, The Troubles, Steele-Perkins revisited an old project about Northern Ireland. On the podcast, he talks to Ilvy Njiokiktjien about how the process made him think afresh about the value of archiving and what it was like to return to Northern Ireland.
‘Matt Black – American Geography’ opens at Magnum Gallery, London
From 23 September to 17 December 2021 (Tues–Fri 10am–5pm), a selection of images from Matt Black’s American Geography is on display at the Magnum gallery in London.
American Geography was produced over six years, 100,000 miles and 46 states, as the photographer crossed his native U.S. without once setting foot in a community that existed above the poverty line.
“Hierarchies of power are what the work is exploring,” he says. “Who gets what and when and where, and who gets to say what America is. That’s what I’m talking about.”
Book your viewing slot through our Eventbrite page or by emailing gallery@magnumphotos.com. The exhibition coincides with the launch of Black’s book by Thames & Hudson this autumn. Black’s work will also be included on Magnum Photos’ booth at Paris Photo (11–14 November 2021).
Tim Adams of The Guardian covered the publication of the book and the London show here.
Bruce Davidson and Khalik Allah feature in inaugural exhibition at Magnum’s Paris gallery
Bruce Davidson and Khalik Allah: NEW YORK is the inaugural show to be held at Magnum Photos’ new gallery space in Paris. Wallpaper* featured the exhibition and the space here.
Running from 22 October to 18 December 2021, the exhibition sets side by side – for the first time in a public setting – the work of two Magnum photographers with unique visions of New York City.
Davidson’s NYC vision took memorable form beneath the streets, when he shot in the notorious subway of the 1980s city. “Color in the subway was different,” says Davidson. “I found that the strobe light reflecting off the metallic surfaces of the defaced subway cars created an iridescence I had seen in photographs of deep-sea fish thousands of fathoms below the ocean surface, glowing under electronic flash, never having been exposed to light before.”
Allah, who cites Davidson as one of his major influences, explored a different kind of NYC darkness: the enabling shadows of addiction. For a few years from 2012, Allah focused his lens on the black community frequenting the corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, shooting only at night. The resulting work, In Souls Against the Concrete (2017), places the people of this marginalized corner front and center. Allah comments: “This body of work is about redemption, strength, and resilience amid addiction, poverty, and street life.”
Round-up: recent press coverage of Magnum photographers
Magnum nominee Lindokuhle Sobekwa talks about his Daleside work in South Africa’s Mail & Guardian here.
The Times, UK, has covered Martin Parr’s collaboration with the Anonymous Project. The latter, founded in 2017 by Lee Shulman, is an ever-growing archive of colour slides taken by amateur photographers of the mid twentieth century. The story is (paywalled) here. There’s also a feature-length interview with Parr in The Guardian here.
Kenneth Dickerman, Photo Editor at The Washington Post, talks about the impact made on him by Jérôme Sessini’s new title Inner Disorder here.
Tim Adams writes in The Guardian here about Bruce Gilden’s new book, Cherry Blossom, in which Gilden’s subjects are Tokyoites.
Alec Soth’s images accompany this moving story in The Atlantic about the Sulzer family. James and Lindsay Sulzer’s careers centered on helping people recover from disease or injury, until their own daughter’s freak accident.
Jonas Bendiksen’s Book of Veles is covered in depth by Wired here and in Blind here.
Magnum’s Trent Parke collaborated with Narelle Autio to create the film installation The Summation of Force, a startling study of cricket. The project features in The Guardian here.
A short piece here on the coming together of Christopher Anderson’s work and family life, from The Guardian.
