29/03/2018 - 02/12/2018

Magnum Contact Sheets

Magnum Photos, founded in 1947 by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David “Chim” Seymour, today has around fifty active photographers on its books, with four offices (Paris, London, New York and Tokyo) as well as a network of fifteen agents in Europe who promote and distribute the photographers’ work.
Magnum Contact Sheets is a major travelling exhibition produced by Magnum Photos in collaboration with Forte di Bard. This remarkable exhibition has never previously been shown in a French-speaking country. Here, on the walls of Stavelot Abbey, it is appearing in Belgium for the first time.
Magnum Contact Sheets retraces the steps through more than 70 years of visual history with photos of iconic moments such as the Normandy landing by Robert Capa, the Paris protesters in May 1968 by Bruno Barbey, the funeral of Robert F. Kennedy by Paul Fusco, the Vietnam War by Philip Jones Griffiths and the September 11 tragedy by Thomas Hoepker, as well as portraits of artists, celebrities, actors and politicians including Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Miles Davis and The Beatles.
Contact sheets are often compared to artists’ sketchbooks. Not only do they have intrinsic aesthetic value, but they are also precious historic documents, helping us to trace the work of the major photographers of our time, shedding light on image selection, the creative process and more.
Next to these centrepiece photographs, contact sheets and archived documents, Stavelot Abbey invites you to discover Belgium as seen by Magnum photographers, in a brief projection show.