13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stories -- get to know them better, April 30 2007
By Tom - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Magnum Stories (Hardcover)
This book is not your usual photo book -- it's real value and what makes it different is the stories inside. Inside, 61 Magnum photographers have written 2-page story about themselves, about why they take pictures, how they work etc. As the book also features photos and/or photo story from each photographer, they also share "inside" information about presented pictures and their background.
I truly recommend this book to all people who have serious interest in documentary photography and like reading/seeing interviews with photographers. If you just want to see pictures and not interested in personalities, then perhaps you should take a look at Magnum Degrees or other similar books.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Anthology Of Decisive Moments, May 19 2007
By Thomas Edwards - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Magnum Stories (Hardcover)
This is a brilliant anthology of the "decisive moments" of the collective individuals who made up the legendary photo agency, Magnum.
Magnum Stories allows one to peer into the mind's eye of the most influential photojournalists of the 20th Century; part history book (as Rodger would have intended), part art book (as HCB would have intended), part photographic teaching book (as Capa would have intended), part autobiography(ies) book, and all at a price that Chim would have appreciated.
One is encouraged to read (simultaneously, if possible) Russell Miller's "Magnum - Fifty Years At The Front Line Of History" to complete the "Big Picture" of the individual Decisive Moments to fully understand the impact of the brilliant artifice constructed by Capa, Chim, HCB and Rodger in that noteworthy spring of 1947.
That said, one would have wished that the other significant actors in the House of Magnum, such as Ernest Haas, Sebastiao Salgado and Mary-Ellen Mark, would have been included in Magnum Stories. Otherwise - Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!
4 of 8 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unreadable, Sep 5 2008
By Peter Randall - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Magnum Stories (Hardcover)
I was looking forward to this book, to read it and add it to my large photo book collection. Many of the greatest photographers of the 20th century belonged to Magnum, but they have been failed by this poorly designed book. The type is too small and stretches into the gutters. Shame on the designers and the publisher for producing what should have been a great book. I returned mine!