Magnum Contact Sheets An exhibition called Magnum...

Magnum Contact Sheets

An exhibition called Magnum Contact Sheets is currently running at The International Center of Photography in New York City.

In a series that stretches from the 1930s to the present, the exhibit functions as a behind the scenes look at how Magnum Photographers arrived at their often iconic images.

Via ICP:

The images featured—both celebrated, iconic photographs and lesser-known surprises—encompass more than 70 years of history: from the Normandy landings by Robert Capa, the 1968 Paris riots by Bruno Barbey, and the war in Chechnya by Thomas Dworzak, to René Burri’s filmic sequence of close-ups of Che Guevara, classic New Yorkers by Bruce Gilden, and Eve Arnold’s famous portrait of the charismatic and image-savvy Malcolm X.

“The contact sheet embodies much of the appeal of photography itself: the sense of time unfolding, a durable trace of movement through space, an apparent authentication of photography’s claims to transparent representation of reality,” said ICP Associate Curator Kristen Lubben, who organized the exhibition. “It records each step on the route to arriving at a particular image, and thus provides a unique window into the creative process.”…

…The exhibition functions—in the words of Magnum photographer Martin Parr—as an “epitaph to the contact sheet,” marking the end of the analog film era and the rise of digital photography.

Image: The contact sheet for René Burri’s 1963 photoshoot with Che Guevara, via ICP.

Click to embiggen.