‘Magnum Contact Sheets’ at Milk Gallery

‘Magnum Contact Sheets’ at Milk Gallery

Milk Gallery 450 W 15th Street New York, NY 10011, USA Thursday, June 26, 2014–Sunday, July 6, 2014

Magnum Contact Sheets reveals how Magnum photographers have captured and edited their best shots from the 1930s to the present. The contact sheet, a direct print of a roll or sequence of negatives, is the photographer's first look at what he or she has captured on film, and provides a uniquely intimate glimpse into their working process. It records each step on the route to arriving at an image—providing a rare behind-the-scenes sense of walking alongside the photographer and seeing through their eyes. Including both celebrated icons of photography and lesser-known surprises, the exhibition functions as an "epitaph" to the contact sheet, now rendered obsolete by digital photography. Through these fascinating and usually private images, the exhibition celebrates what and how photographers saw for nearly a century. This exhibition expands upon the Magnum Contact Sheets exhibition which premiered at the ICP in 2012.