Magnum Blog / The attentive art director

The attentive art director

I've been doing this for a long time and I've finally come to the realization - and it took me quite a while - that we all work on things, generally, with a lot of concern and interest and we actually have a very subjective and strong point of view. And we believe in it, and we think it has great value and that is what we want to show up in our work. Everyone who is looking at our photographs is also very subjective and they react to it through who they are and they get something from it and you never know if they're getting what we [want them to get.] New York City. 2000. Women In Mourning anti-police brutality rally. Paul Fusco/Magnum Photos It's unreasonable to think that they are gonna get exactly what we want and what we got from the situation but we hope we can bring them close so they can feel and think more or less the way we do about that situation. Very often it's an important issue to us. It’s not just trying to make something look beautiful; we're usually photographing issues for a lot of reasons, most of them subjective, and with intent.

Sana Manzoor

And the battle continues on Mr.Fusco; the struggle to bring out the right message has been in debate for decades. Everything is relative but the question of it being right or wrong will not change no matter what the ideology. An issue needs a voice and a certain direction which ideally should be dictated by the first person (the photographer). Once the clicks are over and the material selected, a bigger responsibility lies with the photographer. To bring it to the world in the "right " light. The business as you say it "their audience, the people who buy the magazine, their editors, the boss, the publishers, the advertisers". These will continue to be the variables in this equation while the photographs always being the constant. So let us hope that this gap finds a mediation point so that communication in its truest from is not sacrificed.

Tim Freh

Prachtige Impressie. Magnum voldoet aan een bepaalde qualiteit qua straatfotografie. Erg professioneel nu ik het met mijn eigen foto's zie!

Richard Womack

Amazing photos,a serious commitment to deliver a great message.Like poetry,form & content cannot be seperated...A literal description of the World. To visit a great & true Story,one needs
to view in September.06,2007 thur Sept.22,2007.Famous photograper/gallery of Paula Barr gallery in NYC...fOR Preview visit ArtLiquid.blogspot.com

Abhijit Deb Roy

Awesome photographs...

And yes...i can certainly empathize...(i don't know if that's the right word) with the struggle needed even today to bring out the truth....and to express your views without any inhibition.

However...that, perhaps is the romance of it after all...

great pieces...

congratulations!

Maxwolf Goodliffe

Arf Mr. Fusco!

If you are reading this then I would like to offer you something, there is no money involved and all I want is your time. I work inside a world called SecondLife where we are developers and programmers whom are currently working on re-creating Chernobyl. This company is called Crystal Studio and in the real world it's called Magrathean Technolgies.

I would like to talk to you about putting a live version of your photo essay involving the Chernobyl children as we are creating a charity to raise funds to repair the sarcophagus by covering the remains of the plant with a large super-structure as you might have heard. I'm hoping your email auto-notifies you or someone reads this so we may continue this conversation via email if you prefer (wolf@crystalstudio.ca).