Magnum Contact Sheets

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an amazing time capsule of photographic thought: a compelling journey through the picture-taking process. I assumed he drew them with his contacts sheets as reference, but that’s not the case: “I sketch as soon as possible after taking a shot, usually at the scene itself. The contact sheet shows a series of 5 or 6 photos on the same roll with the Teddy Boy at various stages of carrying out this action. Presumably, when a photographer releases the shutter, it is because he believes the image worthwhile.

When I was a young film newbie I had two experiences that have remained high points throughout my life.Personally I'm fairly diligent with storage and back-up of digital files (touch wood) and still have many pictures from my college days, 15 years ago. You can see whether it took the photographer one shot or the entire roll to get that perfect image, if it took them a few frames or a whole roll you can see how they experimented with angles, framing, composition, etc… (I concede that there are instances where a contact sheet lies, even in this book there are examples of using contact sheets to tell a narrative, but broadly speaking the contact sheet is far more truthful than a single image). contact sheets, representing 69 photographers, are featured, as well as zoom-in details, selected photographs, press cards, notebooks and spreads from contemporary publications, including Life magazine and Picture Post. It was a much anticipated birthday present which, due to covid, was posted rather than handed to me.

I also remember that I didn’t want to intrude too much, but at the same time I felt this obligation to shoot, to document. If the photographer is self-critical, he can attempt to analyze the reasons for the gap between expectation and actuality … Ruthless examination of the contact sheet, whether one’s own or another’s, is one of the best teaching methods.Little did I realise at the time that they would also be useful for scanning old negs onto a computer! High above Paris, Marc Riboud’s Eiffel Tower Painter (1953) dances with his paintbrush – hat tilted at a jaunty angle, a cigarette dangling from his lips.