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The collection consists of photographs from Magnum Photos' New York bureau, dating
from
1929 to 2004. Black-and-white gelatin silver prints make up the bulk of the collection,
but
also included are a few color prints, ink jet prints, and copy transparencies. The
photographs show the world and its people, events, issues, geography, and personalities
as
captured through the lenses of Magnum members. The images in this collection were
made to
distribute to publishers, the media, advertisers, and museums and galleries from around
the
globe. Nearly half the photographs were sent out for assignments and returned, and
thus show
evidence of much handling. The backs of many of the photographs are marked and stamped,
evidence of their usage and means for refiling. |
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Since its foundation in 1947, Magnum has used a number of filing systems (the current
system arranges photographs by story number). The original physical order of the collection
is preserved, but in order to facilitate search and retrieval, this preliminary inventory
groups similar photographs in the following five series: Series I, Photographers;
Series II,
Personalities; Series III, Subjects; Series IV, Geographical; and Series V, Magnum.
The bulk
of the materials are listed at box-level only. All subjects and titles in this preliminary
inventory are those assigned by Magnum. |
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The first series, Photographers, is comprised of boxes containing the works of single
photographers only, and it is in alphabetical order by photographer. In general the
boxes
follow each photographer's career chronologically, occasionally ending with a portfolio
of
exhibition prints. Box descriptions that are seven digits long (e.g., 1944001) are
for
specific stories; the first four digits represent the year of the story and the last
three
digits represent the story number within a given year. |
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Series II, Personalities, consists of images of notable figures from around the world.
Included are portraits and snapshots of world leaders, politicians, artists, authors,
activists, sports figures, actors and actresses, designers, architects, musicians,
and other
celebrated people. Each personality received his or her own folder, so the majority
of boxes
show a range of names rather than a single name. Individual names are displayed either
as
they appear in the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) or have been formed
in
accordance with the Anglo American Cataloging Rules 2nd revision (AACR2r). Dates appearing
in conjunction with names are the life and/or death dates of the subject. |
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The third series, Subjects, consists of generic, domestic topical subjects, and excludes
personalities and foreign countries. All subjects are listed alphabetically. |
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Series IV, Geographical, is divided first by continent or world region, and then subdivided
by country and listed alphabetically. |
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The final series, Magnum, is comprised of portraits and snapshots of Magnum photographers,
staff, contributors and meetings. Additionally there are groups of images collected
by
Magnum members for specific projects. Individual names are displayed either as they
appear
in the LCNAF or have been formed in accordance with the AACR2r. Dates appearing in
conjunction with names are the life and/or death dates of the subject. |
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This preliminary inventory was created to provide immediate access to the collection.
In
the interest of preserving the original state of the archive, folders not containing
any
photographs were left in place and listed but are marked as empty in this inventory.
Boxes
and/or folders not described in Magnum's original inventory are noted as such. In
the
future, more detailed, folder-level information will be added. All personalities will
be
listed individually, and all subjects and geographical locations will contain
subcategories. |
