Review by Melanie Chapman ·
Never before has a book caused this reviewer such a strong case of writer’s block. Near paralysis might be an even better description. Not because it failed to deliver at the level of excellence that one has reasonably come to expect from the collaborative efforts of publisher Thames and Hudson and the impressive collection of work from Magnum photographers. There is no criticism to be made about the fine quality of the images nor of the masterful printing, binding, the text, the intelligence of the editing, the scope of the work… all top notch.
It’s the damn topic: America.
The task of writing a review felt daunting and required far too long for this reviewer, who has been like so many Americans struggling to make ends meet while grappling with changes to a country that felt once familiar, but now also seems to struggle, at times on the brink of meeting its own end.
How can one push past the immense weight of such an overwhelming and at times extremely problematic subject matter, and find a way to sum up all that this relatively young but still mighty union of states was, is, and is in the process of becoming? MAGNUM AMERICA invites you to ponder this question visually, and digest more than 600 photographic representations of what has defined America, from the 1940s when the Magnum Photo Agency was born, until the publication of this tome in 2024.
Like the country itself, experiencing MAGNUM AMERICA is a somewhat intimidating venture. As goes the subject matter, so goes the book: heavy, voluminous, impressive, heartbreaking, massive in scale, yet full of quiet moments of poetic grace. Organized by decades, the viewer can skim through the pages to quickly absorb the past 80 years via a visual timeline. Major events are seen through the talented eyes of a myriad of Magnum photographers such as founders Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Daivd “Chim” Seymour, moving forward to the mid-century work of W. Eugene Smith and Bruce Davidson, among others, and then on to more contemporary members such as Alec Soth, Alessandra Sanguinetti, and Bieke Depoorter.
Magazine and news assignment reportage features prominently in the earliest years, and as time progresses, the book offers more pages to portraiture work (such as that of Eve Arnold) and extended projects featuring cities such as Little Rock, Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York. Telling stories of our times through faces (Increasingly those of “everyday people” rather than those who were famous) and focusing for extended periods of time in a variety of places offers nuanced ways of depicting generational, political, and cultural shifts.
One way to best understand how the editors the approached such a massive subject is by starting at the end of the book and working one’s way back to the beginning. In the final pages of MAGNUM: AMERICA, one can read the Editors Notes about the making of this magnum opus: Utilizing the search command “United States” to comb through the Magnum archive resulted in more than 227,450 images. Co-Editor Peter Van Agtmael writes, “Photographs suggest stories rather than tell them… Editing this book was a revelation.” Graphs charting the changes in subject matter and use of color over the years offers a visually satisfying way to comprehend photographic trends, (“DISTANT VIEWING : BY THE NUMBERS” page 462) as is the amoeba-like form of image data visualization (“DISTANT VIEWING: IMAGE SIMILARITY” page 463).
It is comforting to realize this reviewer was not the only one who found the topic of “AMERICA” to be nearly overwhelming. Learning the methodology by which thousands upon thousands of images were culled down was a fascinating peek into the editorial process and can help one appreciate not just the talent of the Magnum image makers, but also that which goes into compiling a sampling of those images and making such a masterful book as this.
America has not always been “great”, nor has she been exclusively the land of the free and the home of the brave. She is messy, she can be mean, domineering, even cruel. But she can also be joyous, tender, subtle, and beautiful. Thanks to the vast range of talented Magnum photographers, many of her most impactful stories can be found within the pages of MAGNUM AMERICA. You may tire of some of the actions of this country, but you will never tire of revisiting this great and respectful homage of a book.
Contributing Editor Melanie Chapman is a photographer based in Southern California
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MAGNUM: AMERICA
Publisher: Thames and Hudson 2024
Editors: Peter van Agtmael and Laura Wexler
Designer: Yolanda Cuomo
Printing: Trento SrL, Italy
Hard cover; stitched binding; 471 pages; 600+ photographs; ISBN 978-0-500-54456-3
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Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.
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