Framing Community: Magnum Photos, 1947 - Present

Since 1947, artist-owned photo agency Magnum Photos has combined an extraordinary range of individual styles into a powerful collaborative project to chronicle the people, places, and events of the world in a way that defies convention and transforms our view. Founded in the aftermath of World War II by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger, and David Seymour, Magnum Photos has long been driven by a shared belief in humanist values—a belief that has led its photographers, witnesses of a world in increasing disarray, to capture compelling and compassionate images that have marked history.

Published in collaboration with the Hunter College Art Galleries on the occasion of Magnum Photos’s seventieth anniversary, Framing Community takes readers through the history of the agency, with a special focus on community as a subject that is both central to its practice and to fruitful conversations about shifting conditions and social change. Of the more than one hundred images selected, some depict dramatic crowds, while others show quiet communal gatherings. Nearly all resonate powerfully beyond their initial publication, a testament to the skill and political power of the photographers. In addition to the photographs, the book also includes excerpts from interviews with photographers and subjects.