See Photos Almost described it as like new, but there a couple of marks that show up on the dark dust jacket and a very small dent on the top edge of the hard cover. Internally it is unmarked So as it is an expensive book, will go with “very good”… On another day it might have been “like new”. EDITED BY KRISTEN LUBBEN. WITH 435 ILLUSTRATIONS, 230 IN COLOUR. Few photography books can lay claim to being truly groundbreaking. This is one of them. Presenting a remarkable selection of contact sheets and ancillary material, It reveals for the first time how Magnum photographers capture and edit the very best shots. Addressing key questions of photographic practice was the final image a set-up, or a serendipitous encounter; did the photographer work diligently to extract the potential from a situation, or was the fabled’decisive moment’ at play? – this book lays bare the creative methods, strategies and editing processes behind some of the world’s most iconic images. 139 contact sheets, representing 69 photographers, are featured, as well as zoom-in details, selected photographs. Press cards, notebooks and spreads from contemporary publications, including Life magazine and Picture Post. Further insight into each contact sheet is provided by texts written by the photographers themselves or by experts. Chosen by members’ estates. Many acknowledged greats of photography are included, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt and Inge Morath, as well as Magnum’s latest generation, such as Jonas Bendiksen, Alessandra Sanguinetti and Alec Soth. These photographers cover over seventy years of history, from the Normandy landings by Robert Capa, the Paris riots of 1968 by Bruno Barbey and war in Chechnya by Thomas Dworzak to images of Che Guevara by René Burri, Malcolm X by Eve Arnold and classic New Yorkers by Bruce Gilden. This landmark book, published just as the shift to digital photography threatens to render the contact sheet obsolete, celebrates the sheet as artifact, as personal and historic record, as invaluable editing tool, and as a fascinating way of accompanying great photographers as they work towards, and capture, the most enduring images of our time. With 435 illustrations, 230 in colour.
