Magna Brava: Magnum's Women Photographers Book

Fifty years, fifty or so photographers, five women; Magnum Photos has been very much a fraternity since it emerged from the rubble of the Second World War. Luckily, or necessarily, the women to succeed have been of the highest standard and this sumptuous volume, assembled as the catalogue to a British exhibition, brings together illustrative galleries of their work. The unifying theme is less gender than quality of product: Eve Arnold's human glimpses behind the totalitarian mask of 1979 China, Martine Franck's success in capturing the defining individuality of the inhabitants of a remote island off the Irish mainland, Susan Meiselas's brave coverage of the struggle for Central America, Inge Morath's portraits of the honoured and humble of New York and the spaces between, including the wonderfully surreal "Mask" series with Saul Steinberg, and Marilyn Silverstone's meditations on the East, which prefigured her decision to become a Buddhist nun. Also included is a short series of portraits of femininity in 1990s Russia by Lise Sarfati, who had just been made an Associate Photographer at Magnum. However, even her addition did not increase the female representation to six--Silverstone sadly died shortly before publication.The question begged is whether there is an identifiable female dialogue within their canon; the answer is less obvious and is inextricably bound-up in the complicated relationship between lens and subject. Perhaps at times the choice of shot may seem at odds with a male perspective--a look of complicity worn by a tired Chinese worker--but the third point of the triangular dynamic causes any picture to reflect as much as it projects, so the response is infinitely variable. Three introductions, a longer essay by Sara Stevenson and a few paragraphs on each photographer by one of the others, intelligently consider the complex issues of photojournalism in general and the very contemporary issue of balancing career with family. In a market awash with collections of photographs (not a few of them issuing from Magnum) this uncluttered continuum of images is of the very highest quality, a magnum opus by five brave and talented photographers.--David VincentRead More