The latest Square Print Sale from Magnum Photos is a collection of images that “explore the edges of photographic practice, push the boundaries of what we know and see, and embrace the unknown.”
A partnership with Aperture, the non-profit arts organization and preeminent photography publisher, ‘On the Horizon’ is open now until Sunday October 24, at 11:59 PM PST/7.59 PM BST.
The sale offers more than 100 images from some of Magnum’s highest-profile photographers – including Eve Arnold, Harry Gruyaert, Cristina De Middel, David Hurn, Carolyn Drake, Steve McCurry, Susan Meiselas, W Eugene Smith, Martin Parr, Alec Soth – while the roster of Aperture photographers in the sale includes Nan Goldin, Don McCullin, Bob Gruen, Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz and more.
Magnum Square Prints are printed on 6 x 6in (15.24 x 15.24cm) archival paper; the image size is 5.5in (14cm) on the longest side. The images will not be cropped but will have white borders.
As the sale runs for just six days, you will need to act quickly to own a museum-quality print from some of the biggest names in photography for just $100.
Magnum Photos was founded in Paris in 1947 and holds regular Square Print Sales every year. The images in each sale are always different, and are not be available outside the sale window.
“These photographs explore opportunity, aspiration and creativity in response to the unseen and unclear,” says Magnum.
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“At a time when so much of the future is uncertain, and horizons broaden and narrow daily, these perspectives reflect the values and importance of shared experience and looking forward.”
Click here to browse the full selection of the prints available in the ‘On the Horizon’ sale.
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Own a limited edition Magnum Square Print for $100
Read on for some highlights of the prints offered in the ‘On the Horizon’ Square Print Sale…
In spring 2013, Alex Webb was trying to finish photographing images for Memory City, a collaborative book with Rebecca Norris Webb about time, film and the city of Rochester, NY – the longtime home of Kodak.
“When Rebecca, however, said that she needed one last visit to Rochester to complete the book, I only half-heartedly accompanied her,” recalls Alex.
“So, when I stepped into that Lake Ontario dancehall late one afternoon, it was a revelation.
“It was as if those golden shafts of light – seemingly spotlighting these four dancers awaiting their turn – were showing me another ending, one that I’d not expected or imagined, thanks to this 11th hour encounter with serendipity.”
This photo by Spanish photographer Cristina Garcia Rodero is available in the ‘On the Horizon’ sale.
“On an infinite horizon, under the Caribbean sky, a girl flies, enjoying and playing with the warm water,” is how she describes it.
When Thomas Hoepker first met Muhammad Ali, in Chicago in 1966, Hoepker was a young photo reporter working for Germany’s Stern magazine.
“He was 24, had recently converted to Islam, and had just changed his name to Muhammad Ali,” Hoepker recalls.
“I was interested in observing and photographing him as a person, not so much as a boxer. But this proved to be a difficult task. The Champ was elusive and erratic.
“Ali could be delightful, talking without end, in long cascading sentences, often laced with rhymes. But, suddenly, he would clam up and become inaccessible.
“Then, in the next moment, he would cooperate fully with me, clowning around, taking off his shirt, climbing on a bridge railing above the Chicago River and jumping towards my Leica. No horizon seemed too far away for his ambitions.”
This image by renowned American photographer Carolyn Drake was taken in 2007 and documents a subject that’s still in the news today.
“Despite the Chinese government’s efforts to suppress information about the millions of Uighurs whose lives and rights have been violated by a campaign against them in the last decade, enough of their stories have been shared to create a consensus that what's happening is genocide,” Drake notes.
“We need to hear more of these stories. Proceeds from this sale will be donated to the Xinjiang Victims Database, a community funded platform that collects testimonies from family and friends of those detained in internment camps in Xinjiang, that is seeking transparency and creating foundations for future reparations.”
The celebrated street shooter Bruce Gilden needs little introduction; alongside his work shot in the US, he has found Japan a fruitful location for photographic subjects, spending significant time there during the late 2000s.
“It was in a coffee shop in Ginza, Tokyo,” says Gilden of this photo.
“I saw a yakuza lighting his partner's cigarette and after I took one photo of them, I asked if they could do it again to make sure that I didn't miss it.”
Nan Goldin is well known for her portraiture of LGBT bodies, moments of intimacy, and the HIV crisis.
She has also turned her lens to cover the opioid epidemic in the US, and the notes accompanying this image read as follows:
“Proceeds from the sale of this print will benefit PAIN [Prescription Addiction Intervention Now], Aperture and Magnum.
“PAIN has dedicated half its share to organizations raising bail and commissary funds for queer and trans incarcerated people.
“PAIN addresses the crisis of the ongoing Drug War by targeting the pharmaceutical companies that have profited off the addictions and deaths of over half a million Americans.
“Funds from this print sale will go towards future actions to hold Big Pharma accountable, advocate for harm reduction, and pressure our government to decriminalize drugs and provide lifesaving treatments for drug users.“
One of the world’s foremost war photographers, Don McCullin is also well known for his landscape and documentary photography.
“When I came back from [photographing] wars, I would immediately throw myself into my own personal journeys, like going to Bradford or Liverpool, or I’d head up to Scotland to do landscape photography,” says McCullin.
“So I never had time to think about post-traumatic stress. This image strikes me for its alien lunar landscape; an environmental disaster which is so uncomfortably at odds with the presentation of this young mother pushing her shiny pram.”
This striking image by German photographer Sabine Hornig is easy to get lost in.
Describing it, she says: “An image of the skyline is descending from above as inverted, golden forms in morning light.
“A second image of an upright urban cityscape rises from below, filling the interspaces and merging with the golden skyline in a darker night atmosphere, together creating a simultaneous perception of the city, where inside and outside and day and night interchange, the golden foreground becoming a sunrise sky in the background, and the blue background becoming a nighttime foreground in the image.”
Joel Meyerowitz also has an image in the ‘On the Horizon’ Square Print Sale.
“This photograph gave me the double good fortune of the blimp and the belly appearing on the scene at the very moment I stepped out onto the rooftop of this hotel in Miami Beach,” he notes, “not to mention the extra delight of seeing the ring-toss post and its place in the man’s shadow.
“But what really makes this a color photograph for me is the streak of aqua that has bounced up from the water’s surface and adds its subtle glaze to the bottom of the blimp.”
The sale is on for only six days – so be quick!
This is just a flavor of the prints on offer in the ‘On the Horizon’ sale. To browse the full selection, and make a purchase, go to: www.magnumphotos.com/shop
Magnum Square Prints are printed on 6 x 6in (15.24 x 15.24cm) archival paper; image size is 5.5in (14cm) on the longest side. The images will not be cropped but will have white borders instead.
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