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 Post subject: Ritchin and Naggar: Magnum Photobook, The Catalogue Raisonne
Unread postPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2016 3:52 pm 
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Magnum Photobook, the Catalogue Raisonne is a review of seven decades of photography by the members of the Magnum Photo agency, as published in individual photobooks. During the period covered by this title, 1938-2016, photobooks were an alternative outlet for photographic work, providing income in addition to that earned from magazine assignments and free-lance projects. It also provided freedom in subject matter and publication aesthetics beyond that available on assignment. Such freedom, and associated control, was the raison d'etre for the formation of Magnum. For anyone who collects photobooks in general, or photobooks by Magnum photographers in particular, Magnum Photobook, the Catalogue Raisonne is a welcome and most useful tool. As a stand-alone book about great photography, it is a delight to read and to browse.

Following Fred Ritchin's concise overview of Magnum photographers' involvement in photobook publication, Ritchin and Carole Naggar present a 178-page sampler of Magnum photobooks, in rough chronological order. Exercising their editorial perogatives, they have selected photobooks notable for their influence, for their artistry, and for their expanding the scope and discourse of photobooks. This select history is perhaps most characterized by the breaking of barriers, and Ritchin and Naggar clearly show the reader how photographic and publishing freedom was exercised and advanced by Magnum's members. Each book examined in this selection is illustrated (covers and select contents, in color), and discussed in accompanying text. From Robert Capa's Death in the Making (1938) to Michael Christopher Brown's Libyan Sugar (2016), a core library of Magnum photographers' photobooks is presented.

There follows a 15-page section on how some of the most notable photobooks came to be made. Included are images from the Magnum archive, including photographs of the people involved in the publication, copies of correspondence and photographers' notes, and maquettes or dummy books prepared during the compilation and design stages. Photobooks included in this section include Henri Cartier-Bresson's The Decisive Moment (1952), and Susan Meiselas' Nicaragua: June 1978-July 1979 (1981).

As described in an editorial note:
Quote:
[The] catalogue raisonne includes all photobooks conceived, authored and published by Magnum photographers since the agency was founded in 1947. This bibliography does not include posthumous publications, series books, catalogues or monographs on the photographer's work created and authored by third parties.

This is the real working tool for photobook collectors. It lists and illustrates the covers of first editions, and notes later formats and editions. The sizes of limited and artist's editions are given. Book dimensions and text authorship are given as well. The catalogue raisonne is arranged in alphabetical order by photographer's name, from Abbas to Zachmann.

Hardcover, 271 pages, published by Phaidon (2016) and available through Amazon.


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