Back to New York and the end of New York Photoblog

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Dear friends, supporters and visitors of New York Photoblog,

I left New York about 3 months ago and went back to Vienna. I enjoyed the time back home, I continued to photograph, had a couple of assignments for a newspaper, enjoyed the time with my girlfriend and my family. But I also missed New York, it's energy, it's composure, it's people, the streets...

About two weeks ago Mark Lubell and Claudine Boeglin from Magnum New York called me to ask me if I'd like to return to Magnum for another 3 months to work on an important project. This time I'd get payed, the internship is over. To make a long story short and not bother you with details, I said yes after my girlfriend said ok.

So I am happy to announce that I'll be back in New York City from March to May 2006. Yeah baby, the adventure continues... :-)
At the same time this is the official announcement of the end of New York Photoblog. Since I don't know what time will bring and I can't run a website about New York if I'm not there, I worked on a new project, a new website, a new blog that will be about photojournalism, photography and passion.
I am happy to have Lexar, ColorVision and Digital Railroad as sponsors for my new project. They again support me with their equipment and know-how. I am still negotiating with Canon and really hope that they'll also continue to support me.

The new website "Journal Of A Photographer" will launch on March 1st 2006. So long you can check out my portfolio website or my Digital Railroad archive for some recent photographs.
New York Photoblog will of course stay online for now. Fell free to browse the archives or check out some of my favourite posts. I selected a couple of posts from New York Photoblog which I find most interesting, entertaining or somehow informative.

A selection of New York Photoblog posts

Audio interview with Magnum photographer Simon Wheatley - November 28, 2005
New gallery: A Backstage Look At Magnum Photos New York - November 21, 2005
An open letter to Magnum New York and a job in London - November 03, 2005
A night out with Bruce Gilden - October 30, 2005
Multimedia Gallery: Four Years Later - 9/11 Commemoration - October 17, 2005
Anti-War Protesters in front of the White House - September 26, 2005
Back from my trip to Washington, DC - September 24, 2005
People waiting at a bus stop in Lower Manhattan - September 07, 2005
Color is color is color is color - September 06, 2005
An adventure: A day trip to Staten Island - September 05, 2005
The Alex Webb / Chuck Norris connection - August 28, 2005
How my impressions about New York changed so far - August 19, 2005
War Photographer: The Backstage Story - August 18, 2005
Some certain small things that make me know: I'm back - August 17, 2005
Karin and Nicole in the quietness of the night - August 07, 2005
Observing the passers-by from above on 5th Avenue - August 02, 2005
Sun slit in Midtown Manhattan - July 23, 2005
A Giant grabbing a couple on 5th Avenue in Manhattan - July 21, 2005
Prospecting for girls in El Barrio - July 20, 2005
Uncle Sam, the man with the big hat - July 14, 2005
Thomas Eickhoff on the traces of his family - July 12, 2005
More photos of the Gay Pride Parade 2005 - June 28, 2005
Two men on 5th Avenue - June 20, 2005
A rooftop movie night - June 19, 2005
Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City Part I - June 12, 2005
Puerto Rican Festival in Spanish Harlem - June 11, 2005
A woman waiting on the sidewalk - June 07, 2005
Sunday on the beach and at a parade - June 05, 2005
It's all about photography... - June 03, 2005
Todays Magnum In Motion Meeting - May 31, 2005
Dance Africa 2005 in Brooklyn - May 30, 2005
Tasty and fresh - Fulton Fish Market Part I - May 27, 2005
316 (Threehundredandsixteen) American National Flags - May 22, 2005
42nd Street Subway Station - May 17, 2005
Getting Carl De Keyzer a coffee - May 07, 2005
Joe the man who's picture was taken a thousand times - May 01, 2005
Arrival in New York City - April 29, 2005

So thank's again for visiting New York Photoblog and stay tuned for the new site! Remember March 1st is the launch date for it!
I hope to see you again on "Journal Of A Photographer" soon.

Martin

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:30 AM | Comments (14)

Magnum Photos Feature: Bolivian Elections by Chris Anderson

Magnum says hello again and they wish us a Happy New Year with a new and very powerful multimedia essay. Magnum nominee Christopher Anderson (whom I interviewed in New York already) travelled to Bolivia in December to photograph the election of Evo Morales, a former coca farmer intent on bringing socialism to his indigenous countrymen.
Chris Anderson photographed before, during and after the presidential elections and did not only bring back impressive black and white photographs but also field recordings he did during his 10 days trip.

This new multimedia essay is - in many ways - a further step for Magnum In Motion as I personally see it. It's the first essay for which a photographer did not only record street sounds on-site but also sort of a spoken diary which was used for this story. Thanks to the new Flash Tool which was developed and designed together with the Belgium webdesign agency "group94" the format of this presentation changed and improved. The sound is not intermitted by the changing of photographs anymore and movement was partly created through quick sequencing of images. Well see for yourself and please let me know what you think of it. Any feedback will help to further improve this kind of presentation.

For a list of all multimedia essays produced so far visit the Magnum In Motion website, for more work by Magnum photographers visit the Magnum Photos website and for more Magnum related postings on New York Photoblog go to the archive.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:35 PM | Comments (14)

Audio interview with Magnum photographer Simon Wheatley

As I have mentioned before I am starting a series of interviews with photographers. My first interview partner was Magnum nominee Simon Wheatley from London. I met him when he came to visit New York in September for about three weeks.
We wanted to do this interview earlier already but decided to wait until we could meet in person. A good decision since we got the chance to get to know each other a little better.
The interview was recorded on September 27th within the Magnum New York office. We ended up talking for about two hours. It was a really good and interesting conversation which I want to share with you in a shortened version.

The Audio Interview

I divided the interview into 11 chapters. It is only available in MP3 format which I hope will be convenient for you. Just grab the MP3s, put them on your MP3 player and listen to them on your way to work or while wandering around the streets on the lookout for new subjects and situations to photograph. The total length of all 11 chapters is 45 minutes and 46 seconds. In addition to the audio interview you can view a selection of 32 photographs taken by Simon Wheatley in London, Amsterdam and Mexico.

Simon Wheatley talks about his beginnings in the world of photojournalism, about an important time he spend in Hungary, about the importance of loneliness, about getting close, about depressing work, how he got in touch with Magnum Photos, about Magnum the ice cream, he offers advice for aspiring photographers and much more.

Upcoming Interviews

The next interviews have already been recorded. It's Joachim Ladefoged from the VII photo agency and Chris Anderson from Magnum Photos. More to come.

I hope that you'll enjoy this interview. Please let me know what you think. Any sort of feedback and improvement suggestions are highly appreciated. Did you always wanted to get answers on certain questions by a photographer? Let me know the questions!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 03:12 PM | Comments (28)

New gallery: A Backstage Look At Magnum Photos New York

Long time no see. I took sort of a break during the last 10 days. I was working on the concept for a new project, I worked on the interview with Simon Wheatley, I met with friends in Vienna, I did some work for Magnum and for the last couple of days I was busy saving my Laptop from dying. Suddenly it started to crash every couple of minutes. I went to buy a second external harddrive, saved all my files on it and reinstalled the operating system. Fortunatly everything seems to work again.
Anyways, regarding the job at Magnum in London. I didn't get an answer yet. I'll have to wait another couple of days.

New gallery with images from Magnum

Today I am updating the blog with a new gallery showing images I took during my time at Magnum. It's mosty snapshots. This new gallery is a tribute to those behind the scenes. The photographers do a great job, but let's not forget about the people who work for all the Magnum photographers and who dedicate theirselfs to this job. Working at Magnum is certainly not the best payed job in the world so people don't work at Magnum for the money. Damn, if it's not because of the money... Why do they work there? Because of their passion. This gallery is a tributen to my colleagues at the Magnum Photos office in New York as it is to give you a better insight in the work circumstances there. It was good fun and I really never had another job which I only liked nearly as much as this one. Originally I wanted to record all the staff. Everybody should have told me their name, what they are doing at Magnum and sort of a nice and funny anecdote about work. I started doing that but since I left New York five days earlier then expected I couldn't finish this. So no sound this time.

I hope you enjoy this little look backstage! Let me know what you think and the next update will be the Simon Wheately interview.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:55 PM | Comments (25)

A meeting in London and Viennese friendliness

Today was my first "real" day back in Vienna. I arrived here Wednesday morning but went home from the airport directly. Didn't see much of the city then. Thurday morning I left Vienna for London while it was dark and I came back home to Vienna in the middle of the night. Didn't see much either. Well and after I got up at 3 pm today I went down to the local supermarket around the corner.

I live in Viennas 20ieth district which is one of the "not so nice" areas of Vienna. The unemployment rate is high, a lot of people around here live on social welfare, you've got a lot of old Viennese guys hanging out with their buddies all day long drinking one beer or one schnaps after the other. At the same time you've got a lot of foreigners from Turkey and from former Yugoslavia living here. A lot of them have to live under bad circumstances, in small crapy flats. The tolerance between those - I'd call them typical - Viennese people and the people from foreign countries living in this neigborhood is not the highest. Obviously that's not true for everybody but I again experience this as a big issue.

So I went down to this small supermarket, getting some great bread (Americans can only dream of such bread) and some other food. Waiting at the cashier, an elderly Viennese man behind me suddently started to shout at the cashier for not working faster, for being lazy and for being a gypsy... The cashier was not at a loss for words and a small dispute started. After a couple of sentences I couldn't hold it back anymore and I just had to tell this guy that he should calm down a bit, I asked him if this is his usual way of communicating with people and I asked him if he had so much stuff to do that he is in such a hurry. Obviously this man was way beyond retirement age...

I am wondering where the Austrian friendliness went which is used by the tourism industry. Where did it go or better - did it ever exist?
Hey Vienna, I promise to do my best not to be too negative about you but it's hard. :-) I'll keep on trying and I'll keep on posting about my experiences.

A meeting with Magnum Photos in London

Well and of course I have to keep you posted about the developments regarding the job in London. I flew to London Thursday morning for a job interview with Magnum London's managing director Dominique Green and deputy director Hamish Crooks to see if I'd be fitted for the open position.

The first thing which amused me after arriving in London-Heathrow was to watch a cab driver almost starting a fight with another cab driver. Man this guy was so out of rage and it took the others quite a bit of work to hold him back. A promising beginning for my visit to London.

Since I arrived at 8 am in the morning and my meeting was scheduled for 2 pm I had some hours left. I wanted to meet with Siobhan (first photograph in this set) who was an intern at Magnum Photos in New York. Unfortunately the phone number I had from her was wrong. And I wanted to meet with Simon Wheatley, a London based Magnum nominee whome I got to know and interview in New York as well. But he went off to Paris the day before on assignment.

So I took the subway to Kings Cross station, found a barber shop, got my hair cut and took the subway again to Magnums London office. I came there early, sat down in a café and listened to some nice realxing music on my MP3 player. Time went by and I went to the office. A nice new office space with a big print sales room at the entrance. Some vintage prints on one side of the room, some digital prints printed on a HP Designjet on the other side. Dominique showed me around their new office and then we sat down together with Hamish for the interview. We talked about the responsibilities of this job, about my background and time in New York. It was a good meeting, the people in the London office seem to be really nice and motivated and the job seems to be really interesting. In some aspects a little different to what I've done so far but that's good. New areas of work and new experiences!
I am going to hear back from them with a decision on whether I'll get the job or not hopefully soon. I'll keep you posted!

And by the way: After 196 days of posting an entry every day this is the first one posted out of this daily schedule. Stay tuned for more updates.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 04:18 PM | Comments (9)

Last day at Magnum Photos New York

My last day at Magnum Photos in New York is over. I cleaned up some files on which I was working on in the last six months but other than that there was not much work left for today.

I used the day to say good bye to everybody at large, to have lunch at this great authentic Dominican restaurant across the street together with the Magnum In Motion team and Magda. I smoked my last cigarettes on the fire escape with Megan, Nick, Irene and James and I was talking with Chien-Chi for quite a while after work.

Oh and I got a couple of presents! First of all I got three prints... One print each of Magda and James, two aspiring photographers and co-workers of mine and then I got another print from Pablo. Pablo is the long time printer of Magnum in New York. He worked there for about 14 years already and since I always admired his work-prints on which he writes notes, exposure times, gradiations and stuff like that he gave me a Larry Towell work print. That's freakin cool! It's actually this picture Larry Towell took in Ramallah in 2000 and it has notes written with a thick black marker all over. Very asthetic and beautifull. I am gonna frame that together with the prints I got from Magda and James to put them on my wall at home!
And it goes on. :-) I also got one "In Our Time" book, one "RFK Funeral Train" book by Paul Fusco with a personal inscription. Isn't that nice?!

I am going to miss Magnum, New York but especially all the nice and interesting people I met here. Eventually I'll come back to New York one day and I am sure that I'll see one or the other again. And who knows, if this job interview in London works out fine I am going to stay within Magnum.

After work I headed over to Brooklyn for a last drink and then back to the Bronx to finish packing. You wouldn't believe with how much (or less) stuff you can live comfortably. My last six months basically fit into two big gym bags, one camera bag and a laptop bag. Well, they have to fit in there. And that's exactly what I am going work on right now. I'll make everything fit...

My flight leaves New York tomorrow evening at 6:25pm. I am going to post another update before leaving New York City tomorrow.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:58 PM | Comments (8)

Fun shots from a farewell to Magnum evening

Morten

Nick

Irene

Magda and Ian

Nick and Martin

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

An open letter to Magnum New York and a job in London

There is a lot going on in my life right now. As I wrote a little over a week ago my time in New York comes to an end. Magnum offered me a job in it's digital department about two months ago which I didn't take because I felt the need to move on and push my photography further.

Well my plans changed in the meantime. Mark Lubell, Magnum's New York bureau director, asked me if I would be interested in taking over a job in Magnum's London office. Hamish Crooks who is among other things responsible for Magnum's image database and website is going to leave Magnum. They need somebody to do that job and Mark thought that I might be well suited to do that for different reasons.
Long story short, I said yes because I think that this position is a pretty interesting one. Because of all the things I've done in the past, because of six months knowledge of Magnum and my pleasure to learn new things and gain more experience I decided to go for it. And hey, it's another country again...

Again a pretty tough decision because that obviously means that I can not start working as a photographer right away. I got quite a lot of positive feedback from people who told me that they have high respect for my decision to reject the job in New York and follow my own photography. Now I kind of feel like betraying those people, this respect which was brought towards me. But I thought about it quite well. And it seems to be the right way for me. Having a full time job doesn't mean that I am not photographing anymore. Look at the past six months. I worked a lot but I also took about 18.000 photographs during that time. I've never before photographed that much. So it's also a chance for my photography. I am going to stay in a highly inspiring environment and am able to work on a personal project on the side.

So what does that mean for the rest of the time in New York? Well I was supposed to leave New York Saturday the 12th to fly back to Vienna. I rearranged my flight today... I'll leave New York already Tuesday November 8th to go back to Vienna. I'll arrive there Wednesday and will fly to London for a job interview on Thursday. It's not for sure that I'll get the job. I'll be one of many applicants and will have to see what happens.

That messes up my time plan for the last days in New York. I feel the stress already. Gotta do this, gotta do that, want to hang out with my friends here before leaving and so on. I'll be at work tomorrow and on Monday and that's it.

Subject: An open letter to Magnum New York

Tonight I send out an e-mail to all the Magnum New York staff to say goodbye and thank you. Since I have the feeling that this e-mail shows my feelings towards my colleagues pretty well I decided to share it with you. :-)

Dear Magnum staff,

After writing a whole lot of very pathetic breathed on words about my last six months at Magnum and in New York I decided to delete all that crap and try to come to the point in a couple of sentences. Not exactly what I am well known for. :-)

My time at Magnum New York draws to a close. I came here at the end of April, full of excitement as well as nervousness. The nervousness left, the excitement stayed. I enjoyed working at Magnum a lot. I met wonderful people and got inspired by Magnum as well as New York City!

My internship is about to end and I'll leave New York Tuesday November 8th. My last day at work will be next week Monday. I leave with a weeping and a laughing eye at the same time. A great experience is over, I leave the city I got to love so much and where I feel at home but I am also ready to move on. I have an appointment in the London office next week and if things work out fine for me I will start to work there.

Alright, before I start to bore everybody I want to say one more thing coming out of my heart (well I can't resist to have at least one pathetic element in here)... I really want to thank every single one of you for welcoming me the way you did, for working with me and for letting me become part of this great office. It has been a great pleasure and honor to work with you!

By the way, people with a certain job in New York City are called "New York's Finest". I'd rather call all of you "New York's Finest".

Cheers,
Martin

That's it for today. I'll keep you posted about my last days in New York and how it's going on afterwards!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (10)

A night out with Bruce Gilden

"A night out with Bruce Gilden" - promising titel isn't it? Alright, before I start my story for all those who don't know Bruce Gilden yous should take a look at his portfolios on the Magnum Photos website to see the kind of photography he does. I'd especially recommend looking at "A Beautiful Catastrophe" or his Book "Go" because that's pretty much how he works today. Oh and don't miss looking at this wonderful multimedia essay Magnum In Motion did a couple of months ago. I wrote about that in an earlier post.

I met Bruce Gilden for the first time perhaps a couple of days after starting to work at Magnum in New York. I would say that he is the one photographer who can be seen the most within the office on 23rd street. I don't want to make this too much of a praise of one certain photographer... But I guess I will. :-)
When I first met with Bruce I found him let's say very proper. He is a pretty smart guy although he might not always want to admit that. He is always direct and honest, talks and dresses the way he wants to and doesn't really care about what others might think of him. Some people might find his directness rude, I find it honest. You better make sure he likes you. ;-)
Over the time I respected him more and more, he is not only a great photographer (and I do think that Bruce Gilden will - at one point sooner or later - be recognized even more than he is today) but also a great entertainer.

When he stops by the office he mainly talks about soccer. Bruces daughter Nina who is 13 plays soccer in a pretty professional youth league. Don't ask me for the name of it. I can't remember. He tells us about game from last weekend, about the players, who did a good job and who failed. Sometimes his stories are pretty amusing. And recently one of the main topics between Bruce and me became his 8 months old cat. Somewhen I mentioned that I have two cats at home and now we are exchanging our cat experiences.

So why did I call this post "A night out with Bruce Gilden"? Simple answer: I was assisting Bruce last night at a fashion party in Downtown Manhattan. Last week I went for a couple of drinks with my colleague Nick and he told me that he might assist Bruce at a fashion party Saturday night. He has assisted him four or five times before that already and he must have noticed that I was melting away while thinking of assisting Bruce. He offered me to do this assisting job myself since he did it before and wants to spend Saturday evening with his girlfriend anyway.
So when Bruce came into the office the next day Nick came over to him while he was standing at my desk and asked him if it would be alright if I come to help him out. Bruce looked at me and said "Do you know how to use a light meter?". And before I could even answer he said "Hey Martin, don't get nervous now. You are turning red..."
This guy really looks through everybody. Well of course I know how to use a light meter. In theory. I've got one. But I rarely use it. Bruce might have a special light meter and I might mess things up... So I got nervous right away. :-)

Anyway, long story short, I met Bruce Saturday evening at his home, got to meet his wife and daughter, got updated on new school plans for Nina he showed me how to use his light meter and off we went to the "Fendi 80th Anniversary Party Hosted By Karl Lagerfeld".

We took the (in that case) stinking train a couple of stops downtown and got off at the Bowling Green station. After a short debate with the securtiy who didn't want to let us in because our name was not on the list we finally arrived. A bunch of photographers where lined up in front of a wall paved with Fendi logos. They where obviously waiting for the stars to arrive...

A couple of days ago my girlfriend asked me if I have ever seen celebrities on the streets of New York. I had to tell her that I didn't. At least not that I knew of. Now I can tell her that I did. Not on the streets but inside these huge, huge luxurious premises on Broadway. The first thing I had to think of when I saw this place - the way it was set up and decorated - was a huge, wild, drug consuming, very VIP sort of orgy. And by that time the place was still empty.
There have been many famous fashion designers, models and actors like Ashley Olsen, Tommy Hilfiger and Karl Lagerfeld. But let me tell you that I am not very good with famous people. The only face I recognized was Karl Lagerfeld. Famous or not, everybody tried hard to look important. So let's just leave them the fun.

I am sure you want to know if I was able to use the light meter or if I failed! I didn't use it at all. All I did was carrying Bruces backpack with replacements, a flashlight to look after the power of his flash once in a while and I had to make sure that I wasn't in one of the photographs he took. That must have been an interesting view for the visitors there. There are these two guys walking around, one of them (me) suddenly ducks down, jumps to the side or hides behind the other guy (Bruce) while he get's into peoples faces with his small Leica, a 24mm lens and a flash.
We had fun, made fun and had some nice conversations. What a night full of stars and glamor.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:55 PM | Comments (5)

Nicholas Marwell - A colleague from Magnum

Click image to enlarge

Alright, alright... This image looks totally posed. But believe it or not, it isn't posed. It's just a 1/60 of a second. A lucky or unlucky moment - depending on your point of view - in the Deli around the corner from Magnum.

I'll go on to give you some more insight into the people I work with today. Nick was working for Magnum Photos as an editorial researcher for about a year until he quit to take a three months leave. Eventually he came back to Magnum at the beginning of September to work on sponsorship proposals for Magnum In Motion.
Before Nick came back to Magnum we didn't really work together or got to know each other better but I have to say that I really enjoy working with him. He's the maaan. He is a great, funny and honest guy who even goes on hammering into his computer keyboard after braking his thumb. Well perhaps he is not as smart as I thought... ;-)
Oh and by the way... He does a great job baby sitting Bruce Gildens young and really sweet cat... :-) Nick, I salute you.

Read more Magnum Photos related postings in the archive.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:45 PM | Comments (4)

Two more weeks and two days to go...

My co-worker Gemma at the Magnum Photos office in New York - Click image to enlarge

Well I guess it's time to face it. The Magnum New York staff got sick of me after six months and they want me to leave. Just see Gemma above. She just can't stand me anymore... ;-)

Let's be serious. Yes it's time to face it. No more dodging now! I will leave New York in two weeks and two days. My todays post is not going to be an open love letter to New York. I didn't yet write that. But it's going to be a simple information that my time here draws to a close.

I have to admit that I've already been sort of anxious for the last couple of weeks. I knew that the time is running and let me tell you - there is still sooo much to see, to explore and to do in New York. Six months in this city is simply not enough. But I guess two years wouldn't be enough... So I've been thinking about how my life will go on after returning to Vienna. What am I going to do? How will I find a job? What is the best way to reach my goals? And so on...

Well... Magnum offered me a job about a month and a half ago. If I would have accepted I would have worked in Magnums digital deparment. Basically sanning images and retouching them. Wow, I would have had the chance to stay and live in New York. Stay with Magnum, get more experience, inhale the greatest city in the world! BUT - and that's the great but: I didn't take it. It cost me quite some energy, nervous, fussed hours and long talks on the phone until I decided, after thinking about it very well, that this job might not be what I really want to do. I think that this job wouldn't have led me in the direction I want to take. The direction: Taking photographs, becoming better and better, start to earn money with it and reaching a goal in photography. I did also think about that a lot and I know that's what I have to do. BUT and that's another but: I am yet not quite sure about the way I should go for that. Well I guess I already know which way I am going to take but it's certainly not the straight one. The question is if there would be a straight way to go. And let's be honest: The straight ways are usually the most boring ways.

But anyway, I am going to let you know more about my plans somewhen soon. There are still a couple of things to be sorted out and I am excited about that. You can be sure about one thing already: I am already working on a new project for my time after New York and I am sure it will be interesting to a lot of people out there. Make sure to sign up for the newsletter to be informed about what's going on or check back to read about it on my blog.

And isn't there a saying that means something like "You should stop when you are on top"? I wouldn't say that I am on top, there is fortunatly so much more to come, but these last 6 months in New York have certainly been one of my most beautiful and best experiences ever. So why stay when it can only come worse. New York is going to wait for me and I can come back. Now there are new experiences and new adventures waiting for me. I am sure!
And then there is my girlfriend Karin waiting for me... ;-)

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:50 PM | Comments (12)

Magnum Photos: Backstage with Larry Towell

I have written about my experiences with Magnum and about new multimedia essays before. Today I am excited to let you know about a new project Magnum In Motion did. It's not one of the multimedia essays where you see a slideshow of photographs together with the photographers voice and street sounds but something else... It's a look backstage with Larry Towell, one of the great Magnum photographers.
This multimedia story is divided into 4 main chapters: El Salvador, Palestine, Mexico and Canada as well as into 6 extras such as "The Way Into Magnum", "Making Books" or "Inside The Photobag".

Bjarke "BJ" Myrthu from Magnum In Motion (who really put a lot of work in this new story) and Andreas Monie Boggild - a Danish film maker - visited Larry Towell for a weekend a couple of months ago on his farm in Canada. They interviewed and filmed Larry Towell. I have to admit that I am pretty jealous... ;-) He is such a great photographer with an egagement for the people and topics he photographs you can not find that often. I only met him twice. The first time was last year when I came to New York to attend Magnums AGM party in June and the second time about 4 months ago when he came to the office.

Anyway. This new story which is very much build like a movie gives a great insight into the person Larry Towell as well as into his work and motivations. Magnum did a great job on that and you can expect more of this sort to come along soon. Please let us know what you think!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:03 PM | Comments (4)

Preparations for the interview with Simon Wheatley

As I mentioned in an earlier post I was preparing questions for an interview with Magnum nominee Simon Wheatley. I originally planed to do this as a telephone interview because Simon is based in London but since he just spend three weeks in New York I was able to do that interview in person last evening.

I am starting to edit through the material I got and want to put the interview online at the end of next week. This will also be the start of a series of interviews with different photographers.

The photograph above shows Simon Wheatley on the rooftop of Magnum Photos New York office.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)

Magnum Photos Feature: Ghost Town by Thomas Dworzak

Magnum In Motion has launched a new multimedia essay today showing photographs Thomas Dworzak took on a TIME assignment of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
In my opinion "Ghost Town" is the best feature we did so far. The other features, which can be found here, have been good as well but this one is, at least for me, the most interesting one. The photographs just seem to work together with his comments so well. And Thomas Dworzak talks as he usually does. He is honest and tells the viewer what he thinks. He is talking about the people down there, about the conditions he worked in and about the inadequate response to the tragedy of the government. It's for sure a rather insightful essay well worth viewing.
Don't forget to plug your earphones in or turn on your speakers. Otherwise it's not even half as interesting as it is with the audio.
Any comments/feedback are desired. Be it positive or negative ones!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:44 PM | Comments (8)

Magnum Photos Internships

I got a couple of e-mails througout my time as an intern at Magnum asking how I got my internship, telling me they would really like to do such an internship as well. I wrote about how I got the internship at the Magnum Photos office in the Q&A section of the about page on this website. I happend to get great support in doing this from my girlfriend, I quit my old job to have time for it and the financial situation somehow let me do it. Well money is a problem but anyways...

If you'd like to do an internship at Magnum as well and circumstances allow you to do that you should go ahead and apply now. The New York office posted open positons today. You can find them through going onto their website and click the link "Internships".
If you want to do an internship in the London, Paris or Tokyo office just send an e-mail to the respective office.

Believe me, you are going to have a great time, you'll learn a lot, see great photography and meet interesting people. I wouldn't want to miss that experience at all. It's wonderful!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:47 PM | Comments (1)

Magnum Photos staff and interns after work

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:57 PM | Comments (4)

The Alex Webb / Chuck Norris connection

I am back from my weekend with Alex Webb, his wife Rebecca Norris Webb and about 12 other people who took a workshop at the Woodstock Center of Photography. Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb have been teaching this workshop together.

A note about Woodstock first

I have to say that Woodstock is a strange place... About 4000 people live there all year long, about 15.000 in the summer time. It kind of has an American small town feel to it but at the same time it's totally touristic with a whole bunch of arts-galleries, shops and restaurants. And how else could it be - some visitors of the famous 1969 concert in Woodstock have never left since then as it seems. There are not only a handful of hippies, old and young, who are carrying the message of love and peace out to the world. At least to Woodstock.

The Workshop

The two workshop days have been interesting, intense, inspiring and fun. Of course two days are a little short but we made the best out of it. Saterday morning was the time to introduce everyone and have a review of all portfolios. We got a shooting assignment for the afternoon which meant that we should just go out and photograph what interests us. We were asked to try and photograph more intuitively. Don't think too much when photographing. One of my weak points.

I went to the Dutchess County Fair about 45 minutes away from Woodstock. The second biggest County Fair in New York State. County Fairs are something typical American I'd say. A huge festivity with awards for best cows, pigs, chickens, pigeons, horses and other animals. There is a huge amusement park, tons of Hot Dogs, Pizzas, Burritos Pepsis and cotton candies. I only had about two hours left to photograph and it was kind of interesting because I didn't put myself too much into a situation of stress but just walked, looking around. The photo above is from that fair.

On the second day of the workshop we had to get along without photographing. We were asked to make a first and second edit of our photographs which was then shown to all of us. Interesting to see how Alex Webb examines the photos. This was also sort of a short introduction to editing which is one of the most important processes a photographer should be able to do.

Well and we talked a lot. Alex and Rebecca told us about their work, they've shown us prints and got asked a lot of questions of course. A nice and relaxed atmosphere!

What do Alex Webb and Chuck Norris have in common?

I do not know Chuck Norris personally but I'd say not much. So then what is this whole Chuck Norris thing all about? This is one of the funny stories Alex came across... So what does a Magnum Photographer have in common with a martial-arts TV and Movie star? First the beard. Second their color of skin. These two things seem to be enough in some parts of the world to mistake Alex Webb and Chuck Norris. Paradoxically Chuck Norris movies seem to be well known and exported into countries which usually don't have a wide selection of TV shows and movies.

When he told us about one of his trips to Haiti this came up. People on the streets suddenly started to believe that this is Chuck Norris who is walking around taking photographs. He was then working together with a fixer (a native who helps translating if necessary, who shows you around, who knows a bunch of people and who watches your back if there is a need to do so) who decided that it would be better to leave them in this misbelief. This trip took place while one of the many rough times in Haiti. People were suspicous and the fixer thought that it might unburden his work to a certain degree.
At one point a big muscular Haitian man came over to Alex and told him that he was a huge fan of him (of Chuck Norris unfortunatly), that he was into martial-arts himself and asked for a tip which might help his career. Alex told him the same thing he tells people asking for an advice in photography. "Don't think too much and be intuitive." This was not the only time people thought that he was Chuck Norris. Especially when travelling together with his wife and they have to show their passports. Rebeccas passport only says "Rebecca Norris" and not "Rebecca Norris Webb". Border officials already thought that Mr. Norris might travel under a pseudonym... :-)
Go ahead and compare for yourself. Visit Chuck Norris' website and Alex Webbs website to see their portraits.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:06 PM | Comments (6)

Personal Photojournalism Workshop with Alex Webb

I was sitting in front of the computer at work when my co-worker Tom came over to tell me that Alex Webb was on the phone for me. Hm, Alex Webb on the phone for me? Why should he call me? Beside saying hello we never really had to do with each other... I picked up the phone and Alex asked me if I am going to bring my Laptop this weekend. "Ahm... Bring my Laptop? Where should I bring my Laptop?". "Aren't you coming to Woodstock this weekend? Tom told me you'll come.".
Ok, now I knew what was going on. I once told Tom that I was thinking of taking part in Alex Webb's "Personal Photojournalism" workshop at the Center for Photography in Woodstock. Since I can't afford to spend that much money for two days I stopped thinking about it.
So I told Alex that I was really sorry, I won't be able to take part since I don't have the money for it. It's not because I think it's not worth it but my financial situation in New York is just not the best.
Alex was really, really nice, talked to the people of that school and managed to bring me in for free as his assistant. I will be going to take care of the computer issues, will be downloading stuff onto it and see where else I can help. So I just have to find a place to stay in Woodstock this weekend.

I am really looking forward to this workshop. Alex Webb is probably one of the best color photographers ever. His play with color, light and shadow, his exeptional sense for composition and geometry is outstanding. Alex Webb is full member of Magnum Photos since 1979. To see some of his work visit his portfolio section on the Magnum website.

New Street Photography Photoset added

I have also added a new Photoset of 15 Street photographs taken in my first three months in New York. Feel free to browse the pictures and leave your critique.

For a complete list of all Photosets click here.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)

New Magnum Photos Feature - And what else is going on

And yet again there is another multimedia essay published by Magnum. This time it's Paul Fusco's "Bitter Fruit" which shows photographs we weren't supposed to see. Fusco began his essay on the funerals of the American soldiers killed in Iraq in November 2003. Since then he traveled to some 27 different cities and towns.
This essay is going to accompany an exhibition by Paul Fusco which will be shown at this years VISA POUR L'IMAGE, the Perpignan International Photojournalism Festival.

To see more multimedia essays and hear the photographers comments visit the Magnum In Motion website for a listing of these essays.

Margaretville Photos are published on Clandestina

A selection of the photographs I took in and around the small town of Margaretville in Upstate New York was published today on the Argentinian online magazine "clandestina.trips". Honestly I am not totaly happy with the edit and the sequence of the photographs there. They cut some images out because they do only publish eight photos on each city and they used a different sequence than I sent them. I'll just contact them and ask them to change that. You can anyway view the new edition of clanedtina.trips here or see the whole set of photographs in my gallery.

VII Seminar, October 15th and 16th in New York

VII is hosting a Seminar on October 15th/16th, 2005 in New York City. All VII photographers (Alexandra Boulat, Lauren Greenfield, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Joachim Ladefoged, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey and John Stanmeyer) are going to have presentations, there will be a panel discussions, informative and practical breakout sessions and a portfolio review. I just signed up for my place on the Seminar. If you'd like to do so as well check this website.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:58 PM | Comments (4)

War Photographer: The Backstage Story

Thomas Dworzak introduced me to this war photographer a couple of days ago. To protect his identity we are simply going to call him "Mr. War Photographer". I had some very interesting discussions and hour long talks with Mr. War Photographer at the Magnum Office. Well actually he doesn't like to talk that much but he is at least a good listener and a very interesting guy. Mr. War Photographer recently got a new assignment to document inner city life of the New York City Magnum office. He started his journey through Magnum New York today and I was privileged to join him.
We had sort of a rough day together. We muddled through all areas of the office, got to see the ups and downs, got to see heart rending moments in the cultural department and burning heads in the accounting department. We've been witnessing dramatic moments of life and in the middle of the chaos we found moments of hope and humanity.

After this time of combat photography in the middle of the Magnum office Mr. War Photographer decided to put away his bulletproof vest to take the next step documenting the aftermathes of all this. He decided to photograph on the fire escapes looking for remaing traces of the current situation.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:57 PM | Comments (11)

What do you want to know from a Magnum Photographer?

I am preparing an interview with the new Magnum nominee Simon Wheatley at the moment.
I am thinking of including some popular questions from my visitors and am asking you therefore to tell me the questions you always wanted to ask a Magnum photographer. Please leave them here as a comment or send me an e-mail. Thanks a lot.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 08:03 AM | Comments (17)

New Magnum Photos Feature: Satellites by Jonas Bendiksen

Magnum In Motion, the department of Magnum Photos which is responsible for Magnums interactive essays, has launched a new multimedia essay today.

Satellites, by Jonas Bendiksen, is a photographic journey through the scattered enclaves, unrecognized mini-states, and other isolated communities that straddle the southern borderlands of the former USSR.

Jonas Bendiksen interned at the Magnum Photos London office when he was 19. After his internship he moved to Russia for several years to work on his own photographic projects. He is a Magnum nominee since 2004... His photographies are colorful, well composed and honest.

We used 44 of his images together with his voice and some sound to put together this multimedia essay. This combination still makes this new sort of features very unique and interesting to watch.
The actual interview with him lasted over an hour. It was very interesting to hear him speak about these regions and his work as a photographer.

You can also view Bendiksens website here or a selection of his work at the Magnum Photos website here.

To see an overview of all interactive essays produced by Magnum In Motion up to now visit their website here. Let me know what you think of this story and if you've got any suggestions for improvement. We are constantly trying to improve our work.

See the archives for all Magnum Photos related postings by me.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:44 PM | Comments (3)

Magnum Photos New York Company Outing

Today was the day of going to the Hamptons! Thomas Hoepker, German Magnum photographer and president of the co-operative, invited the entire office to come over to his house in the Hamptons for a nice day off.

Situated on a very nice and huge lake in the middle of Long Island we had a great day of relaxation, hanging around, swimming and kayaking in the pretty warm water on Thomas realty. We had a nice barbecue and drinks, got the chance to meet Dennis Stock, Elliott Erwitt and Burt Glinn. And it was also a good possibility to get to know each other better. Since most interns only work two days a week it's not always easy to get to talk longer.

I talked with Dennis Stock about his famous image of James Dean on Times Square. I wanted to know if he is kind of annoyed to see his image on posters, shirts, mugs and a lot of other stuff sold to tourists around the world or if it somehow makes him happy to see his iconic image on evey corner. We ended up talking about the James Dean community in which he is sort of a personality, licensing images, finding out about abusive use of his photographs, a meeting with Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, finding original contact sheets of him on e-bay and his 2 and a half year old dog Ty. An interesting conversation...

Frankly, the day was not like a day you spend together with co-workers but much more like a day you spend hanging out with friends. Yeah, the Magnum Photos staff rules!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:38 PM | Comments (4)

New Magnum Photos Nominee Members

As mentioned earlier the 58th Annual General Meeting of Magnum Photos was held last week in Paris. The photographers meet once a year, during the last weekend in June, in New York, Paris or London, to discuss Magnum's affairs. One day at this meeting is set aside for considering and voting on potential new members' portfolios.

Chris Anderson, Geert van Keesteren, Simon Wheatley and Christina García Rodero have been accepted into Magnum as nominee members.

Beside that Paolo Pellegrin was elected as a full member of the agency after being an associate member, Trent Parke and Mark Power are associate members now (after being nominees).

Chris Anderson is a New York City based photographer and was with the VII photo agency until he resigned to apply for Magnum. One of the last awards he received was the 1st place as Magazine Photographer of the year. You can view his 40 winning images of this contest here.

Geert van Keesteren, a dutch photographer won third place in World Press Photo's 2005 competition for spot news stories with an essay about raids on the homes of suspected militants in Iraq. These images can be seen here.

Simon Wheatley from the U.K. has documented youth culture and kids living in poor areas of London and Amsterdam. A part of his very interesting work can be found on his website.

And last but not least we've got Christina García Rodero from Spain as a new Magnum nominee. She spent over 16 years photographing popular and traditional festivities and religion in Spain and Mediterranean Europe. Parts of her work can be found here.

I would have loved to attend the AGM in Paris, sneaking around with my camera listening to the dicussions between photographers, seeing why portfolios have been choosen and others were not. The AGM is called to be a very exciting meeting in all ways. People laugh, people cry, heated discussions as well as amicably conversations. Isn't the diversity a distinction of life. And of course it's a distinction of Magnum as well.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:20 PM | Comments (2)

New Magnum Photos Feature: Coney Island by Bruce Gilden

There is a new multimedia feature by Magnum again. This time it's Bruce Gilden with a selection of 20 images of Coney Island commented by the photographer.

It was a hell lot of fun and very interesting doing the interview for this essay. Bruce Gilden is a very interesting person with a very strong character, saying what he thinks. He is very direct, some people might call that harsh, I call it honest.

At first sight his images of Coney Island (he started photographing Coney Island in 1968) seem to have a different style in comparison to his later work. What connects all of his photography is Bruce Gildens interest in people. He once said in an interview for Source magazine: "The people that I photograph I enjoy. I am stimulated by them. I like people that have something different and special and I think that's what makes life special."
I certainly think that Bruce Gilden is one of these interesting persons. I enjoy his photography and I enjoy his way to be straight and honest.

You can view the new feature here. It's the third multimedia essay of this kind produced by Magnum In Motion. You can check the previous one of Larry Towell here. The last essay was a little different since there have been different stories on one topic which ended up in more photographies. The next essay is already in plan so be sure to see more commented photographs of Magnum in the near future.
Which Magnum photographer would you like to be subject of one of the next essays by the way? Feel free to leave your comments.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:47 PM | Comments (7)

Magnum Photos New York Staff

The above picture shows the staff of Magnum Photos New York. I did this collage at work today as part of a presentation for next weeks Annual General Meeting (AGM) which will take place in Paris.
The AGM rotates between Paris, New York and London every year. It's a big three day meeting where all (or most) of the active Magnum photographers come together to discuss various Magnum related topics, photography and business wise. It's also the time of the year were Magnum photographers look at submitted portfolios for consideration of membership, weather it's a new photographer wanting to become a nominee, weather it's a nominee applying to become an associated member or an associated member applying to become a full member of the agency.
The meeting is kicked off by a huge party with photographers as well as staff and invited guests attending. I was invited to the AGM party last year in New York. Quite good fun and of course very very interesting. It's been my first personal contact with Magnum, it's been the first time I saw photographers like Josef Koudelka, Larry Towell, Martin Parr or Eliott Erwitt in person.
Two days after that party in June 2004 I wanted to meet Mark Lubell, Magnums New York Bureau Director, again to say thank you and good bye since I had to leave again that day. So I went over to the Jewish Community Center where Magnum rented one floor for it's meeting. I took the elevator up to the 7th floor and waited for Mark coming out of the meeting in the lunch break. I waited and waited and started to walk around. After walking around a corner I suddenly stood in front of a room where all the photographers have been sitting together. Woooa... About 50 of the worlds finest photographers in front of me. That made me really feel crawly! :-)
Man, I'd really like to have the chance to actually attend the AGM meeting one day. You hear a lot of rumors on how these meetings are. So I'd like to see for myself...

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)

New Magnum Photos Feature: Land & Identity

A new multimedia story produced by Magnum Photos went online today. Land & Identity is a story about people having no land. About the effects land has on them. The story is divided into four chapters with pictures from the civil war in El Salvador, photographs from the Mennonites in Mexico and Canada, photographs from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and in contrast to that pictures from Larry Towells family and farm in rural Canada.
The story is completed with Larry Towells voice, speaking about these photos as well as with original sounds of the scenes.

A very interesting multimedia feature in any case worth viewing. It's the second feature of this kind the Magnum In Motion team produced. We are already working on the next story so expect more to come.
The Land & Identity multimedia story can be seen here. Please leave your feedback, positive or negative by clicking the link below to improve the next version of that! Thanks a lot.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:33 PM | Comments (5)

Todays Magnum In Motion Meeting

To give you a better insight into my work at Magnum Photos I am posting some photos of todays weekly meeting of the Magnum In Motion team.
Magnum In Motion is a department of Magnum Photos found about a year ago in New York City. The Magnum In Motion team is responsible for all kinds of New Media work within Magnum. Its focus lies on digital storytelling. To give you a good example of what our teams does you might want to take a look at the last online-feature Magnum In Motion did. It's a multimedia story with photographs and comments by Magnum photographer Philip Jones Griffiths about Vietnam at Peace. It was published on the websites of "The New York Times" and the "International Herald Tribune". A really interesting and worthwhile experience.
Our team (in which I feel rather integrated already) works on more very, very interesting projects. Unfortunately I can, at this point, not give any details on them... The competitors could read this blog as well... :-)

The pictures above show our weekly meeting in which we discuss queued to do's for the week. The first picture shows Claudine Boeglin, Bjarke "BJ" Myrthu and another intern (well the back of him) Guillaume. We are holding this meetings in the backoffice area of the office which is also a nice place to sit down, drink a coffee or eat your lunch.
The folders which can be seen in the background contain some of the probably most interesting things in the office. All contact sheets of the photographers which belong to the New York City office of Magnum. Kind of a magical ressource.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:37 PM | Comments (9)

Plugging in the music - havin a great day at work

Some thoughts about good music generated vibes and my work at Magnum today... I left work at about 6:30 pm today. It was raining and I've been tired so I decided to exceptionally afford a 4 dollar ride home to Co-Op City with the Manahatten Express bus instead of riding on the train, changing it three times, waiting for the bus and get home an hour and forty minutes later. Beside the 4 dollars for the Express bus which is rather expensive it's a real pain to use it in the morning. I did that once and it took me like for hours because of the traffic. It's so pleasing using it in the evenings. It saves about forty minutes of commute, there is no changing of transportation, seats are padded, the back rests are high enough to comfortably lean back and it's quiet in there.

When sitting on the bus i plugged in my headphones (it was the first time to have music with me since I arrived in New York) and started to listen to Badmarsh & Shri to calm down a bit. Very nice mix of trip-hop, funk and big beat. Closed my eyes and started to chill. It realy got my in a relaxed and quite mood after a long day at work, missing my girlfriend and still being excited about New York City life all day long (24 hours of excitment is strenuously as well).
Somewhen while driving through the South Bronx I changed to listen to Gentleman, a Reggae artist I just love. That got me into wonderful happy vibes still being totaly relaxed. While listening to this damn good music of Gentleman I started to think about my work at Magnum Photos.

I must admit that I enjoy my work there so much. It's not only learning a lot about photography but it's also about the way I am treated there. The way people respect me and the work I do. I am in the privileged position to work within a department that does many interesting projects, exploring new ways of communication, having responsibility, working together with nice people who all share a passion for photography, being able to bring in my own ideas. I today realized how worthwile it is to get acceptance and recognition for your work. Feeling that you do a good job and your colleagues not only mention but also appreciate is means a lot. It contributes to a very good working atmosphere.

I am not earning any money as an intern but all the knowledge I gain and the way I am able to do my work means a lot as well! Probably more motivation than getting money and superficial encouragement only. So keep it rockin baby.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:53 PM | Comments (2)

Getting Carl De Keyzer a coffee

I had a really good day today. Well, actually yesterday since it's past midnight. Work was good fun, I helped to frame some prints for an exhibition when Carl De Keyzer came into the office. He just arrived in New York since he'll be working in the States for a month and had to pick something up. When he came over to say hello I introduced myself and told him that we've been e-mailing about two months ago when I purchased his 1989 book "Homo Sovieticus" on e-bay. Nice little story on this purchase on e-bay:

I was trying to get a copy of this book for a while. Couldn't figure out where to get one since it's out of print until someone offered a signed and new example on e-bay. I was the only bidder and managed to get it for just 15 Euro. Just a minute or two before the auction was over I mentioned that this guy also sold a dual processor Power Mac G4 with an Agfa A3 flatbed-scanner. Hm, sounds like this computer would well fit into a photographers studio... At that time I also mentioned that the seller was from Gent, Belgium and I knew that Carl De Keyzer runs his studio there... And the e-bay username of the seller was "kecmagnum"... I once read a book written by David Hurn and Bill Jay called "On being a photographer". David Hurn mentioned in his book that the photographers code of Magnum starts with the first two letters of the photographers last name followed by the first letter of his first name. I was not sure but everything pointed towards Carl De Keyzer himself as the seller of this book on e-bay. After I won the auction I send an e-mail to the seller asking where he got this signed and new example from. And guess what. I received an e-mail from Carl De Keyzer five minutes later telling me that it was not hard to sign your own books if being the author.

Anyway, I was honored to get him a coffee from this very good and cheap (relativly cheap for Manhatten) Cuban restaurant on the other side of the street. Nice to meet him in person since I like his work a lot. You may want to view his incredible website here or pictures of the book I bought at the auction here. I can also recommend reading David Hurns book "On being a photographer" which I found rather interesting. This book can be found here.

I left work at about 6.30pm and headed up north to the International Center of Photography which is about 20 blocks away from work to get a schedule of workshops they offer. Wow, they've got such a well sorted book store there! Since I was near Times Square then I walked over to take some pictures. I ended up taking photographies of tourists who took their pictures in Times Square. That was not too serious but good fun anyway! Photos to be posted later.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 01:00 AM | Comments (6)

First two working days at Magnum Photos

My first two days at Magnum went realy well. Got introduced to the staff members, met all the interns (which by the way are quite a lot), got familiar with the office space and set up my place for work.
We originaly intended to work on a desk in the middle of the archives as previously mentioned. Since this space will be needed for someone else and the "In Motion" department wanted to stay together for better communication we set up a new desk in the main office space.
Great place to be since we will be working in the middle of the place where everything comes together. And my view is directly lead to a wonderful color print of Alex Webb and a black and white print from Bruce Gilden among others. You can actually see this one print of Bruce Gilden here.
I am very much looking forward to my stay at Magnum Photos. Everyone seems to be realy friendly and the best of all: Everyone seems to realy have a deep passion for photography. Magnums office is such an inspirational place to be surrounded by good spirits, great people and photographies whether hanging on the walls, stored in the archive or displayed in books.

Too dark photos on this Photoblog

I'd also like to mention something regarding my own photographies displayed on this Photoblog: I got some notes that the pictures here are much to dark. I looked at this site on a screen at the Magnum office today and they've been displayed as kind of a black soup. Of course this is not my intention since they look completely different on my screen. Of course there are wide differences in the way photographies are displayed on different screens but these differences are way to big. I will have to locate the problem and figure out how to do a workaround.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:47 PM | Comments (9)

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)