Imitation Is the Sincerest Form...

No less august an institution than Magnum Photos is having a print sale, one that takes a distinctly familiar format...small, inexpensive prints, available only during a five-day ordering window, after which the prints will be made, signed, and fulfilled. "A sale limited by time, rather than number."

Sound familiar? I think Magnum was inspired by TOP. Okay with me, if so.

The prints are called "Square Prints" because they're 6" square (presumably that's the paper size; the image size would be smaller). I sure hope they're signed on the front, rather than the back.

I ordered one.

Pick three
Whether you order one or not, this is a perfect opportunity to practice the Rorimer Rule: "pick three." James Rorimer, former Director of the Metropolitan Museum, kept his taste and sense of discrimination sharp by quickly picking three things he liked whenever he was presented with a new group of artworks in whatever way. So, even if you're not buying, pretend you are—which three do you like best?

Here's the sale page. It closes tomorrow.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Abbazz: "I have ordered three from historic members of Magnum: Robert Capa, David Seymour and Bruno Barbey (funnily, the iconic picture from the May 1968 student riots in Paris is captioned 'fraternally passing cobblestones, brick by brick, building themselves up'). I have four photos from the previous sale, and the quality is really good even though, obviously, the image is a bit small (postcard sized). The pictures are signed on the front, except for the square negatives or vertically oriented photographs, which are signed on the back because the bottom margin is not wide enough on the front to accommodate the artist's signature. Cheers!"

Tim: "I was very tempted to order a few (I did end up ordering one for a gift). However your teaser about the Turnley and the NOS books has me saving my cash. Hopefully, I can afford the Turnley (if not maybe I can snag a few books)."

I.M.: "Beautiful images! Thank you for the heads up! My three picks: McCurry, Gruyaert and Freed."

Richard Newman: "I found that your 'pick three' wasn't easy. It took three visits to the site to make my choices. First, I looked at them in terms of, did I want the image on my home wall? Most of them failed that test for one (or both) of two reasons. They weren't good 'stand alone' images. As with many documentary photos, much of their meaning and impact requires the descriptive text. Also, many wouldn't work (for me) as 6x6 images. Even the three I chose would work better at a larger size. Given these caveats, my choices were images by 1. Matt Black; 2. Raghu Rai; and 3. Paul Fusco. Interestingly (and unintentionally), two of the three were in B&W, for which I have a liking. It might be interesting to tabulate the selections by TOP responders as to which were selected. Fun."

adamct: "What I find most interesting is how quickly a select number of pictures easily stood out for me. I didn't have to agonize to get my favorites down to a small number. Unfortunately, I can't get it down to three without more time to reflect, but the four that stood out (in order) are: 1. The Signaling Crewman by Robert Capa; 2. Lovers' Lane / New Jersey Docks by Thomas Hoepker; 3. Intimacy by David Hurn; 4. Oficialia del Registro Civil by Alex Webb. By the way, what is interesting about the Hurn photograph is that it wouldn't work (for me at least) without the dark wall and the window behind the bed. The contrast of dark and light, and the stillness of the framed window relative to the bed, is what sets this picture apart from countless other photographs of similar scenes."

robert e: "Too hard. I found it easier to find the three I liked least than to choose the three I liked best. Perhaps if I continued in that vein I could narrow it down to my three favorites, but that would take a long while as I'd surely succumb to the power of these images to provoke contemplation and meditation, and lose my focus. More importantly, the exercise forced me to think about the differences, and similarities, between a good photographic image and a desirable photographic print; or at least how my criteria for them differ."

Comments

[Animesh Ray]

The previous batch of square prints from Magnum had signatures in the back.

[James Weekes]

Thanks for the link. I held myself to three prints. Love the size. I shoot mostly square and most of my prints are 6.75x6.75. Now get to work on your next print sale.

[John Willard]

Carl De Keyser. The boy being "saved", I found it very disturbing and got a visceral reaction.
Nikos Economopoulos. Old woman and toy bird best represents my favorite expression. You do not stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing.
Leonard Freed. Man, trike and tykes. Fatherhood.

Honorable mention, Raghu Rai, one of the more interesting "hand" pictures I have seen, though my reaction is more aesthetic than emotional, so not included above.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Imitation? Perhaps! Perhaps they also have an eye towards 20x200 which has been selling low-cost prints continuously for some time. (An Adams "Snake River", anyone?)

Pick three? No. But for less than the price of that new Leica SL + lens (and less than half a Noctilux-M 50mm F0.95) you can buy the whole set of 63. And unlike the camera or lens it's likely that this set will hold its value, maybe even appreciate a bit, over time.

[jim woodard]

sad to say but there is only one I particularly like, and that not enough to buy.... Elliot Erwitt's -and I own prints by some of the other photographers. I wonder who selected these images?

[Marek Fogiel]

There were hardly 3 photos to chose from. I'm afraid this is a "wastebin" sale in terms of quality. I've chosen one shot - by Chim, and I imagine this one was good because he's gone.

[Manuel]

That is a really hard choice. People may say what they will about Magnum, but it is by far the most important photography institution in the world. These pictures provide just a clue.
I'd definitely choose Patrick Zachmann's picture. Then I'd pick Constantine Manos' "First Encounter". Even though I generally prefer black and white, there's no way monochrome could describe the sexual tension going on in this picture. Finally, Raymond Depardon's. Remember what I commented about the beauty of highlights some days ago, and the way they can make a picture come alive? That was what I was talking about! But there's more: there's a sense of anguish and emptiness perpassing this picture, the kind of sensations that only the most gifted can capture. Sheer brilliance.
If I had any money left, I'd also buy Jacob Aue Sobol's picture. Or maybe I'd buy it instead of Constantine Manos'. But it's very hard to leave Werner Bischof's and Bruno Barbey's pictures out of this selection.

[Andrew]

Magnum has had a few of these sales so far and each time there are interesting photographs on offer. I'd like to know the results -- how many of each photograph sold.

I bought a photo in the last square print sale. The image is indeed quite small but it looks good in a tilt-back frame. I sent the link to this round to my wife. Christmas isn't too far off.

[Joseph]

Hi Mike,

My three favorite photos (in the order of their appearance) are:
- Thomas Hoepker
- Leonard Freed
- George Rodger

Regards,
Joseph

[Greg Brophy]

This needs a "not safe for work" advisory.

[Steven Ralser]

I looked at these photos and agree tbey are good, but I have to ask myself which of these would I like to hang on my wall - and I have to answer none.

[Lawrence Plummer]

You will definitely enjoy it. This is the second sale that I've ordered a pair from. The six inch format looks great framed to 11x14.

[Peter]

I actually had ordered three (two for me and one as a gift). I might have missed it, but I couldn't find any info as to the printing methodology that was used. Seems a bit sloppy to me.

[Ned Bunnell]

Magnum has made this square print offer before and I bought one. Actually nicely done. I also ordered one from this series, and I am always curious which ones are most popular. I bought the Elliott Erwitt print. Which one did you purchase?

Cheers,
Ned

[Jeff]

Lots of great images to choose from, but "Digital C Prints"? Not nearly as nice as pigment based inkjet prints on quality paper IMHO.

[Lawrence Plummer]

Mike:

PS: Forgot to mention what my choices are/would be. I purchased the Elliot Erwitt and Paul Fusco. If I had to choose a third print it would be the Eve Arnold.

[Dave in NM]

David Seymour
Eve Arnold
Guy Le Querrec

[Nick]

With the print size in mind I would pick Jerome Sessini, Matt Black and Newsha Tavakolian.
But if Robert Capa was alive to sign his picture I would drop one of the others for his!

[Joel Becker]

I like the "pick three" challenge. Obviously, with such a great stable of images to build a sale from, there are many great shots to look at. I found it challenging to differentiate between "an image I would pick" and "an image I think I am supposed to pick."

I ended up trying to answer this by considering what I would actually hang on my wall.

My three: Steve McCurry, Eve Arnold, Matt Black

[Jesper]

It is not the first time they have done this. I bought two the last time. They are quite small but also *very* nice. One of mine is signed on the front and the other on the back.
But cool to have print from some famous photographers I have admired for many years :-)

[Bruce K]

I'm not sure what this says about me, but none of them spoke to me sufficiently to make a purchase. Oh well...

[DB]

I liked Paul Fusco's Janis Joplin.

[Bob Blakley]

Perhaps I'm the only one who's bothered by this, but most of these are not "square prints". They're "prints on square paper". The images themselves are almost all rectangular...

[mathew Hargreaves]

I liked the Matt Black picture and went for it. Thanks for mentioning the sale.

[William Lewis]

Chose three? Ok...

The Alex Webb, the Capa & the Hurn would be my choices if I wasn't chronically broke.

Beautiful fun to go through the page though, reading the bits about each image and thinking about them. That alone was worth the exercise and will probably be of help in looking at my own work.

[Chan]

My pick would be Robert Capa's and George Rodger's.
But they are too small for my liking (and for $100).

[John Krill]

1. David Seymour
2. Leonard Freed
3. Eve Arnold

[Larry larsen]

I bought Alex Webb and David Allen Harvey. This is the second round for me. First round I bought Alex Webb and Steve McCurry. They are small, but look great in a 10x12 frame and they are signed on the front.

[ed g.]

I was surprised how few I liked at all. But there were eight or nine I did like, headed by Patrick Zachmann, Erich Lessing, and Sohrab Hura.

[Martin]

Patrick Zachmann
David Seymour
Richard Kalvar

[Globules]

Here are my three choices, which should be displayed in a row in this order:

Steve McCurry
Alex Webb
Constantine Manos

We go from innocent playfulness to intimate anonymity to anonymous sexuality.

Aside from the fact that I just plain like them, I chose those particular pictures because given the relatively small size I feel like colour would have a greater impact. (Like looking at slides on a light table.) Also, you shouldn't have to get too close and squint in order to appreciate them. Finally, some of the other pictures didn't really affect me before I read the backstory. But, with my choices I found that possible — perhaps fanciful? — interpretations came easily to mind.

Had they been larger then certainly Werner Bischoff and Jonas Bendiksen would have been in the running.

[Richard]

Me too. Barely one or two I found very appealing and not for that price for that size either.

[Wolfgang Lonien]

If I would buy one of these, it would be the one from Eve Arnold.

[Karel Kravik]

Bought prints by Alex Webb and Newsha Tavakolian, these two seemed to pair for me.

[James W.]

Alex Webb
Carolyn Drake
Cristina Garcia Rodero

[Michael Martin-Morgan]

Globally, these intimate images are are a historical testament.
The stories that accompany each one form a lesson in humility that I would recommend all teachers include in general education.

[jean-louis salvignol]

For this second sale it's a no brainer: Capa and Rodger, the genes of Magnum. Waiting for Henri!