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So I just listened to this. An hour long interview with someone who has made a career from photojournalism and "telling stories" with photography.
I really enjoyed listening to it - especially the anecdote whereby Cartier-Bresson didn't enjoy his first meeting with Berry, and because all he took were a bunch of prints to the meeting, CB "hated" him. Whereas all CB really wanted him to show, were contact sheets so he could see how Berry "thought". That was the benchmark for inclusion to Magnum, not the single collection of prints. It was all about the thinking process and the ideas behind them. When Berry finally supplied contact sheets, CB seemed to welcome him with open arms.
I think that gave me a bit of faith that "historic" Magnum really did care about the photographs, and more importantly, the storytelling.
I think what had me concerned was mentioned towards the end of the interview when Ben started to ask him about Magnum politics, and there was mention of how "woke" Magnum has now become. About how he is being approached by 'Fine Art' photographers looking to get into Magnum so that they can get gallery space and 'kudos'. The two points were so close together I wondered if Berry was trying to make a point in that it won't be long before Magnum is reduced to having to accept those kinds of photographers, in order to be 'inclusive'.
It's one of the only things that I've listened to/read recently that's got me concerned about 'proper' photojournalism and its descent into the miasma of Instagram likes and woke nonsense.
I'm not sure what I was trying to say, or whether this is more of a "hot topics" post, or a "Talk Photography" post, so I thought I'd tuck it away in Photographic Concepts in the hope that it could fade away quietly or at least have reasoned discussion. Either way - this particular podcast is worth a listen. In my opinion of course!
I really enjoyed listening to it - especially the anecdote whereby Cartier-Bresson didn't enjoy his first meeting with Berry, and because all he took were a bunch of prints to the meeting, CB "hated" him. Whereas all CB really wanted him to show, were contact sheets so he could see how Berry "thought". That was the benchmark for inclusion to Magnum, not the single collection of prints. It was all about the thinking process and the ideas behind them. When Berry finally supplied contact sheets, CB seemed to welcome him with open arms.
I think that gave me a bit of faith that "historic" Magnum really did care about the photographs, and more importantly, the storytelling.
I think what had me concerned was mentioned towards the end of the interview when Ben started to ask him about Magnum politics, and there was mention of how "woke" Magnum has now become. About how he is being approached by 'Fine Art' photographers looking to get into Magnum so that they can get gallery space and 'kudos'. The two points were so close together I wondered if Berry was trying to make a point in that it won't be long before Magnum is reduced to having to accept those kinds of photographers, in order to be 'inclusive'.
It's one of the only things that I've listened to/read recently that's got me concerned about 'proper' photojournalism and its descent into the miasma of Instagram likes and woke nonsense.
I'm not sure what I was trying to say, or whether this is more of a "hot topics" post, or a "Talk Photography" post, so I thought I'd tuck it away in Photographic Concepts in the hope that it could fade away quietly or at least have reasoned discussion. Either way - this particular podcast is worth a listen. In my opinion of course!
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