Magnum Contact Sheets by Kristen Lubben

Magnum Contact Sheets Reviews

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  J Moreno

  Uno de los mejores libros de fotografía que he conprado
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  Arturo Moctezuma

  Está estupendo y mucho material por estudiar
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  aldo

  Un gran acercamiento al contexto y a la realidad de como se crearon fotografías clásicas.
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  Darren

  I've been after this book for a while so when I won some money on a Photo competition I didn't give a second thought about buying it. Despite other comments to the contrary, my copy arrived in perfect condition and it's only protection was a small amount of brown paper around the sides and top. It was despatched through Hermes not Royal Mail so maybe that helped. I also don't see any problems with the page binding. It's not a book you can really look at properly unless you've got a flat surface to put it on but the binding seems to be quite strong to me, so they've either improved this or people were trying to read it while riding a bike or something ;)I haven't had a chance to properly look at the book content yet, but first impressions are that it's a marvellous, beautiful book that I'm sure I'll keep returning to. It will take pride of place in my bookcase, although perhaps on a lower shelf as it's HUGE!UPDATE 29/10/2012I've now had a chance to flip through the content so I thought I'd update the review. The quality of this book is astounding. Despite the fact it's full of beautiful big photos on quality paper (150gsm matt art) many of which you will have seen before if you're serious about photography, I am a little disappointed with the selection of some of them. Given that each photo is accompanied by a narrative about how it came about, in some cases I would have preferred to see other, and in my opinion better, photos by the same photographers. Although that's not to cast the selection with any negativity. They are all superb in their own way and there is a vast array of subjects throughout making it an incredibly interesting read.I've seen other reviews mentioning that you will learn from this book and it will improve your photography, but what you will not learn is anything about equipment used or exposure settings and the like. This is not a "how to" guide to taking photos. What you will learn is whatever you as an individual take from it by combining the narrative with careful examination of the contact sheets and the selected photo. To give you an example, one section, 1976, is a photo entitled "The Teds" by Chris Steele Perkins showing a Teddy Boy about to comb his hair. The contact sheet shows a series of 5 or 6 photos on the same roll with the Teddy Boy at various stages of carrying out this action. So why did the shot get selected? The photographer writes:"The first frame is the one that grabs you immediately, as it's quite decisive [The teddy boy is actually combing his hair], but I preferred the later one because it's of that moment when something is about to happen, yet is suspended, unresolved in time and that injects a little tension into the image"This was one of the first narratives I read, and for me it was like an epiphany! I would have selected the first one myself, but the photographer is right, I'd never considered that the moment of something about to happen is powerful than the event taking place. If I get nothing else from this book I have at least learnt that one thing.Another thing you will learn is that there such a thing as a "decisive moment", but often in order to find it you have to work a scene, approach it from different angles, take multiple shots and above all don't be afraid to make mistakes.It's a fascinating book for anyone with an interest in Photography and one I know I'll keep returning too.
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  Mark J Bradshaw

  It’s paperback but not really.It’s huge and heavy.Been after a hardback for years but it’s been too pricey.Fascinating content with the contact sheet,chosen frame,that frame full size and a small piece about why the frame was chosen.Just brilliant.
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  Brittonie

  i sortof think magnum is kindof problematic. however. i saw an exhibition of these contact sheets at FOAM in Amsterdam and I think it's an excellent and interesting way into how other people see things, how we edit in the moment and later.I"m not all that into docu stuff, but this is great.
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  Katey

  I loved this book (which arrived in excellent condition). I enjoyed seeing the photographs chosen by the photographers in the context of their contact sheets; it gave such insight into the process of taking the photographs and how and why a particular shot was chosen.
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  Pawell

  It is the book from which you can learn a lot about composition and editing in photography and by looking at the way in which most iconic 20th century photography was created.The paperback edition is well priced and I would highly recommend.