Magnum Blog / Photo of the week: Villagers looking at slides

Photo of the week: Villagers looking at slides

Villagers looking at slides of themselves, Yumthang, North Sikkim. Marilyn Silverstone/Magnum Photos In an effort to bring more photography on the Magnum Blog I am starting a new series of posts today called "Photo of the week". I admit... Posting a photo of the week is not a new idea but it's a nice way to share some more photographs from Magnum's enormous archive with you. Not much text - if text at all - other than the caption, just some visual joy. Given the fact that Magnum's online archive currently consists of about 400.000 photographs I don't really have to worry about running out of adequate images. Even if every single Magnum photographer would stop shooting right now we'd have enough photographs for the next 7.692 years. Under these circumstances chances are pretty low that we will live to see the end of the "Photo of the week" series... Today's photo of the week is a pretty well known one by Marilyn Silverstone but let's see which jewels the archive brings to the day of light that are less known...

Simone Höller

What a great shot and a good one to start this Photo Of The Week series. Good idea, looking forward to see more images here.

Datta Gumaste

Beautiful image.

What I like about it?
1. The tonal range. In particular the light falling on the face of the ladies in the centre and the lovely expressions on their faces.
2. The expressions on the faces of all the people who are curious, perhaps eager and certainly
keen to see the slides.
3. The sense of the participation for a viewer in the group. Note the truncted image of the woman on the right. This gives a sense of another group watching slides, and may be there are few more.
4. Above all the charm of B & W picture.

All in all wonderful shot.

Question: Was this a candid shot? The photographer was likely to be present when the prople were viewing the slides. However it is more than likelty that when Marylin released the shutter no one observed her!

Datta

Tam

cool, picture, is a good idea this topic of the image of the week...

Sana Manzoor

An honest start to an intelligent blog; i say once again. The image of the week series might not be a new thing but it surely feeds our appetite for photographs and the brilliance of magnum itself. Continue keeping it fresh Mr.Fuchs as we look forward to the blog. Good Luck and Thank You.

John Vink

Martin,
1/ not all pictures are worthy of being honoured with that kind of exposure. 400000 is a number which includes pictures that are in 'base' level...
2/ try and keep a fair representation among the photographers.

Martin Fuchs

Hey, I am glad the Photo of the week series is seen with friendliness so far. :-) John, I agree, not all those 400.000 photographs are worthy of being honoured the same way. It was just a way to make a point on saying: "We won't run out in the near future." And isn't 7.692 years an enormous number.
And I assure you that I will keep a fair representation among all Magnum Photographers. This blog shall be a place for all of you! Thanks for commenting!

Sajith T S

Thank you so much for this. Please make it a point to tell a little more about the pictures -- such as dates, medium, stories, etc.

Martin Fuchs

Hi Sajith. Thanks for your comment. The idea however behind the "Photo of the week" series is to just show one image a week within this series. These photographs are meant to be for your visual pleasure only. The text that's gonna accompany this photograph will be the caption as it is in our system.
But you can be assured that there will be many more blog posts that deal with photographs and stories in depth, articles where the photographer talks about the story, the process of taking photographs, etc. So I am sure you'll find what you are looking for as well.

antonius riva setiawan

Great picture! i like the expression of the people in this picture.

Roberto Soto

This is activity for me is always necessary!!!, and satisfy both side the people side and the photographer soul, when they look at themselves on the pictures and say what they feel to the photographers, and this image say that in a very clear and pure way!
Is just beautiful!

ndiginiz

Tena koe ehoa
I think what's visually engaging for me is the impression that technology or image reproduction of this nature hasn't been seen in this 'society' either for a long time or before at all. I liken it to a child being entice by a candy bar, the attraction is evident but perhaps not fully understandable. For the me the same idiosyncrasy survives in this image, these people know what they're looking at but the wonder of how it's possible to be looking at what they see. In that epiphany is the visual point of engagement.
On another level there's an impression that distant cultures and their methods have met for the first time and a learning between the two is being shared and documented.

JB

Haaaa !!! Good idea ! One photo every week, for the next 7692 years, how lucky we are !!! ;-)

Raffaele Capasso

Why not one every day?

Djordje

Hey this is great! I salute this idea.
But as Raffaele^ sad, why not one every day?

Martin Fuchs

Well, one photo every day would be doable but our blog is not only a blog where we post single photographs, we also want to focus on more in depth, behind the scenes stories from our photographers as well as dealing with the philosophy behind photography. In whichever form that might be. There will be more photographs each week, just not in this "single image" form as in the photo of the week series. This is just an additional way to show an image that is in one way or the other outstanding.

Teresa Letsky

The curious views of the people in the photograph are wonderful. Keep the photos coming and I think posting a single image once a week is a good way. Every day would be too much.

Serge

Wow, I love it! Their reactions are so great!

Peter

The 'once a week' represents 'old world' approaches. This world of ours needs much more interaction. To overcome some of the concerns expressed above, get a machine to pick and choose the photo...and post one every day. This said, nice project you've got going! Thanks, Peter

Martin Fuchs

Peter I have to say that I disagree with you on that one. I don't see this as an "old world approach", I see it as a way to show photographs that I find highly interesting and might not be that well known.
Having a machine picking photographs would not at all be a possibility, after all Magnum is a human thing. And a photo of the day is currently not an option either. Our articles on the blog are often more in-depth articles and I want to give them the space and time they need to gain the visibility they deserve. The same with the photo of the week... But thank's for your thoughts. I appreciate them and am always glad about feedback and criticism.

Evan Mathison

BRING THEM ON !!!! The more the better. What an enjoyable smattering of styles and content! Thanks for the Inspiration! ... Evan

Freeman

You make my day!