Eye Magazine

George Orwell once wrote that ‘Good prose is like a window-pane’. In the realm of photography, a seemingly unmediated insight into the world has come to us via the ‘photo-story’. Moving beyond the poetic flourish of the ‘decisive moment’, the photo-story’s sequential flow of images seeks to weave a narrative thread from a series of associated events. It allows the photographer to craft a ‘personal essay’, one that has traditionally elevated our awareness of major events or historical confrontations. As in literature, to speak of a ‘story’ is to use a word with numerous connotations. Whether as two images, or an ongoing series of monographs, a photo-story can take many forms. As Chris Boot notes in his introduction, it can either be ‘the narrative chain of things that happened […]; the neutral report of events as well as the highly subjective interpretation; the joke, as well as the great ancestral myth that defines our cultural identity and beliefs.’

From origination to archive, the photo-story has remained the backbone of Magnum’s operations. It is a legacy that stretches from the Robert Capa’s iconic ‘Beachheads of Normandy’ for Life magazine in 1944, to Leonard Freed’s seven-year project on the New York Police force. In the pages of Magnum Stories, we are offered examples from this sub-genre of photojournalism by affiliates of the cooperative. Arranged alphabetically, each section consists of a detailed introductory essay on the work of a photographer, followed by an illustration of their approach to the form. The range of work featured in this anthology is staggering. From Erich Lessing’s images of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution to Martin Parr’s pictures of New Brighton Beach, the definition of what constitutes a photo-story is tested to the utmost. In some instances, breaking news lends a natural narrative sweep to a series of images; in others, the term ‘story’ simply becomes an easy way of grouping together randomly selected photographs.

Nevertheless, in a world of real-time reporting and satellite links, the seemingly infinite range of subjects found in this mammoth book is surely a sign of the photo-story’s continuing relevance. If anything, as a way of offering a coherent view of a war or natural disaster once the CNN trucks have departed the scene, the photo-story has become more important. Yet, the diversity of work in this book once more calls into question how an agency that has built its reputation upon the photo-story can maintain a shared set of aims and intentions. As Boot himself notes: ‘while the notion of the photographic story is central to Magnum’s organizational thinking, it has also been the site of an ideological battle about the purpose of the photographers’ work.’ Such divisions have surfaced most frequently when photographers not cast from the Magnum mould (such as Lise Sarfati or Martin Parr) have been accepted as new members. These individuals represent a move away from what Philip Jones Griffiths once called the humanistic ‘finger-on-the-pulse’ school of photography, towards a form of art photography. Thus, as first- and second- generation Magnum photographers slowly depart the agency, the question remains as to whether these new members are bearing witness to the end of a historic association between Magnum and the photo-story. Only time will tell as to whether this book serves to mark that closing chapter.

Kerry William Purcell, design historian, London

First published in Eye no. 55 vol. 14 2005