Magnum Contact Sheets: The Symposium

A landmark new book, Magnum Contact Sheets presents an unparalleled wealth of unpublished material, revealing the story behind many iconic and historical images of modern times taken by the world’s most celebrated photographers. The book shows their creative process and also acts, in the words of Martin Parr, as an ‘epitaph to the contact sheet’ as it marks the end of the analog era as we move to a digital generation.

Magnum Contact Sheets presents, for the first time, the very best contact sheets created by Magnum photographers. Contact sheets tell the truth behind a photograph. They unveil its process, and provide its back story. Was it the outcome of what a photographer had in mind from the outset? Did it emerge from a diligently worked sequence, or was the right shot down to pure serendipity a matter of being in the right place at the right time? This landmark publication provides the reader with a depth of understanding and a critical analysis of the story behind a photograph, the process of editing it, and the places and ways in which the selected photographs were used. For anyone with a deep appreciation of photography and a desire to understand what goes into creating iconic work, Magnum Contact Sheets will be regarded as the definitive volume.

Magnum Contact Sheets: The Symposium is held in conjunction with the Photography Department of London College of Communication.  This one day event will discuss and address topics and issues raised by the book; in particular the foreword written by Kristen Lubben, Associate Curator of the International Center of Photography, New York.  The Symposium will be introduced by Sophie Wright, Cultural Director at Magnum Photos.

Speakers include:

Simon Baker, Photography Curator at Tate

Martin Barnes, Senior Curator, Photographs, V&A

David Campany, artist, writer & critic and Reader in Photography at the University of Westminster, London

Zelda Cheatle, partner of The Tosca Photography Fund

David Hurn, Magnum photographer and founder of the School of Documentary Photography in Newport

Francis Hodgson, writer & photography critic

Sean O'Hagan, photography writer, The Guardian

Colin Jacobson, author and former picture editor

Peter Marlow, Magnum photographer

Andrew Sanigar, Commissioning Editor at Thames & Hudson

Full schedule to be confirmed.