Larry Towell/Magnum Photos
Late last night, I learned that Magnum has sold its entire photo archive – all 180,000 prints, reportedly worth over $100 million – to Michael Dell's private investment firm. Why would the renowned collective of photographers sell over 50 years of its work (minus licensing and copyright, of course) to a computer tycoon?
"With the proceeds from the sale the agency ... [Magnum] will try to recreate itself as a media entity on the Web, relying less on publications and more on its ability to tell its own stories of world events and trends."
Interesting, but frustratingly vague. Could Magnum be hinting at a move toward a full multimedia production house, something beyond Magnum in Motion?
Maybe, maybe not.
This morning, I did some more digging. Magnum director Mark Lubell told Photo District News that the agency is planning "several major innovations," including:
- system upgrades that will allow the agency to upload images faster, with more data, and more inexpensively
- ways to fund photographers’ projects that can be used in many media
- a business model where sponsors and the general public can support that work
The rest of the funds will be split up among the photographers whose prints were sold.
Hm. Still vague. And why does Magnum's own announcement make little mention of the next move? Instead, it focuses on the print archive's move to museum status at UT Austin's Harry Ransom Center, where it will be lovingly preserved and studied.
Says Glenn Fuhrman of the Dell investment firm, MSD Capital:
"The Magnum Collection is an irreplaceable trove of American and world history. Given the technical changes that have taken place in the world of photography, including the digitization of images, a collection of prints like these will never exist again."
Perhaps so. But before we embrace documentary photography as a historical relic, please, can we talk more about a less dusty future?
