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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 on July 22, 2005 11:38 PM