Magnum Photos, Epoca e il fotogiornalismo degli anni Cinquanta

Abstract

In a famous photograph from 1950, Alberto Mondadori is immortalised in the Paris offices of Magnum Photos during a meeting with, among others, Robert Capa, Maria Eisner, Ernst Haas, George Rodger and David Seymour. The image in question perfectly renders what was the close relationship that united the most important international photographic cooperative with Epoca magazine in the post-war period. As imperfect as it was, this collaboration with the Milanese publisher was on the one hand a fundamental building block for Magnum's sales strategies on the European market, and on the other an opportunity for the remarkable development of a magazine designed on the model of Life and on quality photojournalism.
The aim of the essay is to try to reconstruct some of the steps of this collaboration, both through the reading of the documents conserved in the Magnum archive and by taking into account the reports produced for Epoca by the likes of Robert Capa, Henri Cartier Bresson and David Seymour.