Saying hello to Magnum Photos

I will be starting my internship at Magnum Photos on Monday at 09:30am. Well I couldn't wait to see their office and meet the people until then and gave Claudine a call to ask if I could come over to say hello and to meet her and BJ in person for the first time. Claudine is the Creative Director of Magnum's new department "Magnum In Motion" which is responsible for storytelling with digital media. BJ is a very nice guy from Denmark working together with Claudine on different projects. I've been in contact with him and Mark Lubell, Magnum's New York City Bureau Chief, for most of the time before I came to New York.
You should by the way check out BJ's website at www.versionmyrthu.dk. There are some very good online documentary stories on his website. I especially like "The Enemy Within", a documentary about Russian war veterans.
So I took the bus from Co-Op City to Belham Bay Park, jumped on the 6 train to 59th Street, took the Q train to 28th Street and walked down to 25th Street where Magnum is located. Wow, this trip took about an hour and a half. I will try to figure a faster way out.

The building where Magnum is located is rather inconspicuous from the outside. I took the elevator to fifth floor, the door opend and there I was standing in the middle of the office. The first thing I mentioned have been different pictures of Magnum photographers on the walls, a big tabel with lot's and lot's of photobooks on it and a very friendly looking office space. Claudine and BJ welcomed me and I got kind of an office tour where I was introduced to some of the staff there. Well I can only say that I am sure I'll have a very interesting time there. There will be lot's of things to learn and see. After seeing the main office space BJ took me to Magnum's darkroom which is still used by some photographers. Some of them have their own darkroom where they work, some do rareley need one since they are working digital and some still work in the darkroom in Magnum's office space. Great to be in the darkroom where so many wonderful photographers have developed and printed so many wonderful photographies! :-)) After that we went a little further and stood in the middle of Magnum's archive. It looks like the archive I was thinking of. Shelves which go up to the ceiling with labelled storage boxes everywhere, metallically archive-cupboards with labelled drawers and portfolio folders around. The best thing: Since the Magnum In Motion department consisted of only two people up to now they need some more space for all of us and we will be moving onto a desk which will be standing in the middle of this archive. What a great place to work!

I left the office after half an hour since they had a meeting and headed up north to get back to my appartment in the Bronx. I will be having a relaxed weekend since I still have to get rid of my cold. More news to come soon...

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:46 PM | Comments (6)

Arrival in New York City

I'm in New York City finally! I arrived on Wednesday at about 1:30 pm after a 10 hours flight from Vienna to London and to New York. The flight was alright although I didn't have a chance to get a seat near the emergency exit which would have been great because of the extra space for my feet. Anyway, after having my fingerprints and photo taken by an officer of the Homeland Security I got my travelling bag and headed out of the airport building to get a cab. About 20 minutes later I arrived in Co-Op City. So there is this European guy standing in the middle of Co-Op City at the northeast end of the Bronx with his camera bag and a big travelling bag.
After putting my stuff into the apartment of Victor - the guy I will be staying with for the next couple of months - I went down to the supermarket to get some sort of sore throat pastilles. But... They didn't help me (what else should I have expected).

So I came to New York after quite a few months of preparations and I am starting my stay with a rather bad cold. I am sniffing, I got a cough and I got sore throat. It seems to get worse from hour to hour. I guess the stress in the last weeks and the airconditioning on board the airplane, in the cab and on the subway have been to much for me. Well and since I forgot the plug adapter for my cameras batteries I went to Manhatten by train to get one. And of course it just started raining rather heavily when I came out of the station on 33rd Street.
To be honest, this situation peeved me quite heavily. I've been awake for about 50 hours, I am starting to get a cold just a few days before I start to work and now I am getting wet as well... Anyway - I got my cable and Victor who is working at the Brooklyn Academy of Music picked me up from Manhatten and drove me back to Co-Op City. We had pizza and a bottle of wine together this evening but I had to go to bed early. I just haven't been able to stay up longer.

I haven't been doing much yesterday. Wanted to make a day off, relaxing and sleeping a bit. So I've just been sitting and lying around, went to the "Bravo" supermarket where I already got my first customer card and went for a walk through Co-Op City...

Co-Op City is a rather interesting place to be from my point of view. It's completly different to what Manhattan stands for. Constructions for this apartment complex began in 1968 and up to now there are about 15.300 units in 35 buildings. As the name might already tell, it's kind of a city within the city. There are schools, shops, sports fields and a museum around here. Co-Op City does even have their own police force, the CCPD. As far as I can estimate that, the community in this part of the Bronx seems rather well build. Everyone is friendly, people seem to know each other more or less.

I am a guy from Austria who has been to New York City for two weeks last year. So a lot of the things I know about this city or rather belive to know come from TV. As everybody knows there are lot's of movies and series around which take place in the Bronx. Drug Dealers, murders and rapers do live there... At least in those movies. So I am full of prejudices because that's what I have learnt within the last 25 years. So living in the Bronx, seeing that there is a good ethnical mixture of people living here side by side is rather interesting. I feel very comfortable around here and I am looking forward on taking a deeper look into Co-Op City and the different sides of the Bronx.

Enough for now. I'll be heading towards Manhattan to meet the guys of Magnum Photos for the first time this afternoon. I am anxious to meet those people in person and to enter this significant bureau in which so many of the most influential photographs of the last 50 years are stored on 151 West 25th Street.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 02:28 PM | Comments (12)