Outside In | Magnum Photography

Magnum Photos is a photographic co-operative founded by David ‘Chim’ Seymour and George Rodger in 1947, and has since established itself as a ’round table’ of photojournalism greats, including the legendary Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Outside In: A Magnum Photos Showcase marks the 65th anniversary of the Magnum Photos agency and is the largest collection of Magnum photographs in Singapore to date, with a total of 143 pieces on display.

With Magnum photographers Stuart Franklin & Mark Power using 5 x 4 cameras, these are photographers who carry around large, heavy cameras for that one, perfect shot. When they’ve found the ideal scenario for the shot, they get into position. The camera is set up, a shot is framed, they wait for the right moment…& click.

The cost of that one shot? 10 pounds.

Like any photography exhibition, each photographer’s showcase title exemplifies a meaning and symbolism behind their prized images. These Magnum photographers show that behind every moment in photography, such skill, patience, contemplation, empathy, depth and that little bit of luck make all the difference.

v.a.u.l.t was fortunate to be invited to a walk-through with the 3 exhibiting photographers: Mark Power, Stuart Franklin and Jacob Aue Sobol. Here’s a sneak peek.

Mark Power | The Sound of Two Songs (Poland 2004 – 2009)

[About Power]

Power became a photographer in 1983, and worked in the editorial and charity markets for nearly ten years, before he began teaching in 1992. This move coincided with a shift towards long-term, self-initiated projects, which now sit comfortably alongside a number of large-scale commissions in the industrial sector.

Power’s work is perhaps best known for his large format, conceptual approach to both self-initiated personal projects as well as his commissions. Power’s work has been seen in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the world and he has published five books: The Shipping Forecast (1996), Superstructure (2000), The Treasury Project (2002), 26 Different Endings (2007) and The Sound of Two Songs (2010). He is currently a Professor of Photography at the University of Brighton.

Power attributes this above image to ‘an incredible moment of luck’.

The story behind it was that he was was gunning to shoot a glimpse of the skiers amidst the fogged background. While he was waiting, the Dalmation walked into the frame for a split second and became the protaganist of the image. And in his words…’it totally made the shot’.

Stuart Franklin | Footprint – Our Landscape in Flux

[About Franklin]

Born in Britain in 1956, Franklin was a student of photography and film at West Surrey College of Art and Design. He also studied geography at the University of Oxford. During the 1980s, he worked as a correspondent for Sygma Agence Presse in Paris before joining Magnum Photos in 1985.

Franklin’s coverage of the Sahel famine from 1984 to 1985 won him acclaim, but he is best known for his photograph of a man defying a tank in Tiananmen Square, China, in 1989. This which won him a World Press Photo Award. Since 1990, Franklin has completed over twenty assignments for National Geographic. Since 2004 he has focused on long-term projects concerned primarily with man and the environment.

For the above image, Franklin revealed what a journey finding the perfect spot on a peak was, what more lugging his 5×4. Needless to say, this photograph showed a depth and clarity of the stark reality of climate change and global warming, literally staring at us in our faces.

Jacob Aue Sobol | I, Tokyo

[About Sobol]

Sobol was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1976. He was admitted to Fatamorgana, the Danish School of Documentary and Art Photography in 1998. There he developed a unique, expressive style of black-and-white photography, which he has since refined and further developed.

He moved to Tokyo in the Spring of 2006, living there 18 months before returning to Denmark in August 2008.  During his two years in Japan, Sobol created the images from his recent book I, Tokyo. The book was awarded the Leica European Publishers Award 2008 and published by Actes Sud (France), Apeiron (Greece), Dewi Lewis Publishing (Great Britain), Edition Braus (Germany), Lunwerg Editores (Spain) and Peliti Associati (Italy). Aue Sobol was announced as Magnum’s most recent Member photographer at the Annual General Meeting in July 2012.

Thought-provoking and raw, Subol depicts his own personal isolation within the city of Tokyo, as well as its citizens.

Did we enjoy the exhibition? Indeed so.

Outside In: A Magnum Photos Showcase is shown at the Art Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. The exhibition runs from 10th October 2012 – 6th January 2013.