In partnership with LensCulture, celebrating the seventy years of its creation, the Magnum agency offers a free collection of advice from its photographers. Entitled Wear good shoes, the document is light, comical, funny and informative. The agency was created by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David “Chym” Seymour in 1947. The reader’s advice is released as part of a birthday program composed of three stages: community, witnesses of History, and Magnum Photos Now . This guide is therefore a gift to its community, to the admirers of Magnum, to its faithful as to its curious.
One finds among plethora of good advice and tricks, some tasty ideas. Elliott Erwitt classically advices to “learn the craft (which is not very hard) and refully study past work of photographers and classic painters. Look and learn from movies.” Abbas reveals practical skills: “take a good pair of walking shoes and … fall in love”. Alex Majoli relies on pugnacity: “Work everyday even without assignments or money – work, work, work to discipline yourself and not for editors or awards”, when Trent Park prefers to rely on intimacy: “To photograph what is closest to you and the things that you enjoy and have an interest in. Make the whole process as fun and as least difficult as possible.”
