Magnum Photos
Photo Agency

Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

In 1947, following the aftermath of the Second World War, four pioneering photographers founded a now legendary alliance. Combining an extraordinary range of individual styles into one powerful collaboration, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David Seymour started, over a celebratory bottle of champagne, the most important artists’ cooperative ever created: The Magnum Photos agency.

Magnum Photos represents some of the world’s most renowned photographers, maintaining its founding ideals and idiosyncratic mix of journalist, artist and storyteller. Our photographers share a vision to chronicle world events, people, places and culture with a powerful narrative that defies convention, shatters the status quo, redefines history and transforms lives.

For nearly 70 years Magnum Photos has been providing the highest quality photographic content to an international client base of media, charities, publishers, brands and cultural institutions. The Magnum Photos library is a living archive updated regularly with new work from across the globe.

Magnum has documented most of the world’s major events and personalities since the 1930s; covering industry, society and people, places of interest, politics and news events, disasters and conflict.. In short, when you picture an iconic image, but can’t think who took it or where it can be found, it probably came from Magnum.

Magnum photographers are a rarity and the agency is self-selecting; membership is a minimum four year process and is considered the finest accolade of a photographer’s career.

Magnum Photos reaches a global audience and has established itself as the authentic, storytelling photographic brand. It remains loyal to its original values of uncompromising excellence, truth, respect and independence.

Magnum Manifesto, the landmark exhibition celebrating the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, was exhibited at International Center of Photography.

Paolo Pellegrin

Werner Bischof

Rene Burri

Elliott Erwitt

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Miguel Rio Branco

Robert Capa

David Hurn
Authored Articles
Ukraine: Updates from Magnum
Photographers in the Field
Magnum Photographers are on the ground in Ukraine documenting the Russian invasion and its impact on life in the...
+
Diary of a Pandemic / Part II
Magnum photographers
As part of an ongoing initiative, Magnum photographers are sharing information and new work made in these strange and...
+
Diary of a Pandemic
Magnum photographers
The Covid-19 outbreak has imposed restrictions in movement. As part of an ongoing initiative, Magnum photographers are sharing information...
+
Alec Soth / Magnum Gallery
Nov 7, 2019 – Jan 24, 2020
"Rather than trying to make some sort of epic narrative about America, I wanted to simply spend time looking...
+
They Defend Our Freedoms
30 years / Sakharov Prize
Human rights. Two short words with a long history. Two short words which, armed with the force of an...
+
John Morris (1916-2017)
In Memoriam
John Morris, the photo editor responsible for the commissioning and publishing of some of the most iconic photographs of...
+
RELATED ARTICLES
Our 6th Year Anniversary
ARTPIL / Prescription .141
We are rounding out our fifth year with nearly 3 million visits strong. A very exciting journey it has been, indeed.
+
New Year / 2023
Semantic Shift, Option Delete
Again, we arrive at another year. 2022 was unsparing of conflict and confusion, uncertainty, and the highs and lows...
+
ARTPIL / Prescription .131
100 Days into Ukraine
More terrible is love in Kyiv than magnificent Venetian passions. Butterflies fly light and maculate into bright tapers.
+
Future Now Symposium 2021
April 28 – May 31, 2021
This symposium is an exploration of 21st century culture through art, bringing together key institutions, galleries, publications, and artists...
+
International Women’s Day / 2021
Artpil / Prescription .124
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; nor...
+
For The Sake of Calmness
Newsha Tavakolian
"Landscape provides the backdrop for my visual narrative while sound intertwined with my monologue adds a third dimension to...
+
New Year / 2021
ARTPIL / Prescription .122
This would be the world we would inhabit for the time. And so holiday celebrations would toast on a...
+
The Shadow Pandemic
Artpil / Prescription .121
This other virus, which has existed for a far greater period of time and whose rate of contagion is...
+
Photo London Digital
October 7–18, 2020
Photo London presents Photo London Digital, this year's fair taking place online with the its digital partner, Artsy, through...
+
I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating
Alec Soth
This exhibition comprised of large scale portraits and interiors focuses on Soth’s depiction of the individual, posing questions about...
+
A Matter of Black Lives
ARTPIL / Prescription .117
Following the murder of George Floyd by police officers, demonstrations across the U.S. and beyond ignite against racism and...
+
Capa in Color
Sep 17, 2019 – Jan 26, 2020
Capa regularly used color film from the '40s until his death in 1954. Some of these photographs were published...
+
Berlin Photo Week 2019
October 10–13, 2019
Berlin Photo Week brings photography to life celebrates the love of photography, art, and technology, with events throughout the...
+
Good Morning, America / Vol. 1
Mark Power
The first in a series of five books by Power created as the result of this ongoing 10-year project,...
+
Visionary Color / Ernst Haas
Sep 6 – Nov 9 2019
Taken between 1952 and 1981, the photographs of Ernst Haas presented on display show an ambiguity bordering on the...
+
New Year / 2019
ARTPIL / Prescription .077
2018 comes to an end, we can almost hear the fireworks. Let our solitude be a period of self...
+
The American Document / Part II
Fractured States / Peter van Agtmael
After returning from years of war coverage, van Agtmael tries to piece together the memory, identity, race, class, and...
+
Photo London 2018
May 17–20, 2018
Now in its 4th edition, Photo London has established itself as a world-class event and as a catalyst for...
+
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
70 year Anniversary
Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family...
+
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2018
Oct 18, 2018 – Jan 27, 2019
Showcasing a diverse range of images telling the often fascinating stories behind the creation of the works, from formal...
+
Look Back on 2017
ARTPIL / Prescription .025
So here we are, the last day of the year, 2017. We are wrapping up our first 6 months,...
+
Bleu Blanc Rouge / Christopher Anderson
Nov 2 – Dec 22, 2018
The dynamic between movement and stillness resembles a series of stills from a never-made movie, distilled from a larger...
+
Portrait of Humanity Award
Deadline Dec 11, 2018
The series aims to create one of the most far-reaching collaborative projects with 200 longlisted images featured in a...
+
Koudelka: Invasion 1968
Aug 22, 2018 – Jan 13, 2019 / NPG
On August 20, 1968, a Czech photographer took to the streets to document the chaos unfolding on his doorstop:...
+
Magnum Manifesto
70 years of Magnum Photos
This landmark exhibition celebrates the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, founded by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour and...
+
Paolo Pellegrin
Magnum Photos
Photo Agency

Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

In 1947, following the aftermath of the Second World War, four pioneering photographers founded a now legendary alliance. Combining an extraordinary range of individual styles into one powerful collaboration, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David Seymour started, over a celebratory bottle of champagne, the most important artists’ cooperative ever created: The Magnum Photos agency.

Magnum Photos represents some of the world’s most renowned photographers, maintaining its founding ideals and idiosyncratic mix of journalist, artist and storyteller. Our photographers share a vision to chronicle world events, people, places and culture with a powerful narrative that defies convention, shatters the status quo, redefines history and transforms lives.

For nearly 70 years Magnum Photos has been providing the highest quality photographic content to an international client base of media, charities, publishers, brands and cultural institutions. The Magnum Photos library is a living archive updated regularly with new work from across the globe.

Magnum has documented most of the world’s major events and personalities since the 1930s; covering industry, society and people, places of interest, politics and news events, disasters and conflict.. In short, when you picture an iconic image, but can’t think who took it or where it can be found, it probably came from Magnum.

Magnum photographers are a rarity and the agency is self-selecting; membership is a minimum four year process and is considered the finest accolade of a photographer’s career.

Magnum Photos reaches a global audience and has established itself as the authentic, storytelling photographic brand. It remains loyal to its original values of uncompromising excellence, truth, respect and independence.

Magnum Manifesto, the landmark exhibition celebrating the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, was exhibited at International Center of Photography.

Werner Bischof

Rene Burri

Elliott Erwitt

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Miguel Rio Branco

Robert Capa

David Hurn
Authored Articles
Ukraine: Updates from Magnum
Photographers in the Field
Magnum Photographers are on the ground in Ukraine documenting the Russian invasion and its impact on life in the...
+
Diary of a Pandemic / Part II
Magnum photographers
As part of an ongoing initiative, Magnum photographers are sharing information and new work made in these strange and...
+
Diary of a Pandemic
Magnum photographers
The Covid-19 outbreak has imposed restrictions in movement. As part of an ongoing initiative, Magnum photographers are sharing information...
+
Alec Soth / Magnum Gallery
Nov 7, 2019 – Jan 24, 2020
"Rather than trying to make some sort of epic narrative about America, I wanted to simply spend time looking...
+
They Defend Our Freedoms
30 years / Sakharov Prize
Human rights. Two short words with a long history. Two short words which, armed with the force of an...
+
John Morris (1916-2017)
In Memoriam
John Morris, the photo editor responsible for the commissioning and publishing of some of the most iconic photographs of...
+
RELATED ARTICLES
Our 6th Year Anniversary
ARTPIL / Prescription .141
We are rounding out our fifth year with nearly 3 million visits strong. A very exciting journey it has been, indeed.
+
New Year / 2023
Semantic Shift, Option Delete
Again, we arrive at another year. 2022 was unsparing of conflict and confusion, uncertainty, and the highs and lows...
+
ARTPIL / Prescription .131
100 Days into Ukraine
More terrible is love in Kyiv than magnificent Venetian passions. Butterflies fly light and maculate into bright tapers.
+
Future Now Symposium 2021
April 28 – May 31, 2021
This symposium is an exploration of 21st century culture through art, bringing together key institutions, galleries, publications, and artists...
+
International Women’s Day / 2021
Artpil / Prescription .124
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; nor...
+
For The Sake of Calmness
Newsha Tavakolian
"Landscape provides the backdrop for my visual narrative while sound intertwined with my monologue adds a third dimension to...
+
New Year / 2021
ARTPIL / Prescription .122
This would be the world we would inhabit for the time. And so holiday celebrations would toast on a...
+
The Shadow Pandemic
Artpil / Prescription .121
This other virus, which has existed for a far greater period of time and whose rate of contagion is...
+
Photo London Digital
October 7–18, 2020
Photo London presents Photo London Digital, this year's fair taking place online with the its digital partner, Artsy, through...
+
I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating
Alec Soth
This exhibition comprised of large scale portraits and interiors focuses on Soth’s depiction of the individual, posing questions about...
+
A Matter of Black Lives
ARTPIL / Prescription .117
Following the murder of George Floyd by police officers, demonstrations across the U.S. and beyond ignite against racism and...
+
Capa in Color
Sep 17, 2019 – Jan 26, 2020
Capa regularly used color film from the '40s until his death in 1954. Some of these photographs were published...
+
Berlin Photo Week 2019
October 10–13, 2019
Berlin Photo Week brings photography to life celebrates the love of photography, art, and technology, with events throughout the...
+
Good Morning, America / Vol. 1
Mark Power
The first in a series of five books by Power created as the result of this ongoing 10-year project,...
+
Visionary Color / Ernst Haas
Sep 6 – Nov 9 2019
Taken between 1952 and 1981, the photographs of Ernst Haas presented on display show an ambiguity bordering on the...
+
New Year / 2019
ARTPIL / Prescription .077
2018 comes to an end, we can almost hear the fireworks. Let our solitude be a period of self...
+
The American Document / Part II
Fractured States / Peter van Agtmael
After returning from years of war coverage, van Agtmael tries to piece together the memory, identity, race, class, and...
+
Photo London 2018
May 17–20, 2018
Now in its 4th edition, Photo London has established itself as a world-class event and as a catalyst for...
+
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
70 year Anniversary
Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family...
+
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2018
Oct 18, 2018 – Jan 27, 2019
Showcasing a diverse range of images telling the often fascinating stories behind the creation of the works, from formal...
+
Look Back on 2017
ARTPIL / Prescription .025
So here we are, the last day of the year, 2017. We are wrapping up our first 6 months,...
+
Bleu Blanc Rouge / Christopher Anderson
Nov 2 – Dec 22, 2018
The dynamic between movement and stillness resembles a series of stills from a never-made movie, distilled from a larger...
+
Portrait of Humanity Award
Deadline Dec 11, 2018
The series aims to create one of the most far-reaching collaborative projects with 200 longlisted images featured in a...
+
Koudelka: Invasion 1968
Aug 22, 2018 – Jan 13, 2019 / NPG
On August 20, 1968, a Czech photographer took to the streets to document the chaos unfolding on his doorstop:...
+
Magnum Manifesto
70 years of Magnum Photos
This landmark exhibition celebrates the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, founded by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour and...
+