Downtown Toronto’s Picture Centre is digging deep for a restaging of Magnum’s First, the celebrated image company’s long-forgotten inaugural exhibition. It was proven at a number of Austrian venues in 1955-56 however by no means seen on this aspect of the Atlantic—till now.
On show will likely be 83 of the present’s unique gelatin-silver prints. Magnum’s First options works by most of the twentieth century’s most celebrated photojournalists—amongst them Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, who co-founded Magnum in 1947 with George Rodger and David “Chim” Seymour. Different photographers within the present embody Werner Bischof, Inge Morath, Ernst Haas, Marc Riboud, Jean Marquis and Erich Lessing.
The exhibition’s supplies had laid dormant for a half-century within the basement of the Institut Français in Innsbruck, Austria, earlier than being rediscovered in 2006. Included had been a poster and hanging directions for the present. The set up, initially titled Gesicht der Zeit (face of time), will likely be meticulously reconstructed for its Toronto debut.
“We’re proposing a show respectful to the unique,” says Gaëlle Morel, the Picture Centre’s curator. “We’re additionally together with the unique wood crates, labels and introductory textual content.” She provides that there will likely be a brand new textual content included to “contextualise the exhibition and inform the story of the invention. The exhibition is a pleasant alternative to point out how Magnum Images determined to show right into a cultural establishment within the Fifties with books and exhibitions; not simply specializing in the illustrated press however increasing its actions past printed journalistic media.”
Inge Morath’s Eveleigh Nash at Buckingham Palace Mall, London, Nice Britain (1953) © Inge Morath/Magnum Images
Morel says that whereas she doesn’t like to choose favourites, “Morath’s sequence on London reveals numerous wit and humour, whereas on the identical time insisting on the rich-and-poor class divide. I discover it very good and nicely executed.” Included within the present are Morath’s Lloyds Financial institution and Eveleigh Nash at Buckingham Palace Mall (each 1953).
On the Picture Centre, the rediscovered Magnum’s First will run concurrently with an exhibition dedicated to considered one of Magnum’s founders. Chim’s Youngsters of Europe will chronicle Seymour’s 1949 undertaking, commissioned by Unesco, documenting the dire residing situations of younger folks in postwar Europe.
The Picture Centre is a pictures and artwork museum, a part of Toronto Metropolitan College (previously Ryerson College). It opened in 2012 and occupies an previous warehouse, since remodelled, on the college’s campus.
Magnum’s First, 10 September-13 December and 14 January 2026-4 April 2026, The Picture Centre, TorontoChim’s Youngsters of Europe, 10 September-13 December and 14 January 2026-4 April 2026, The Picture Centre, Toronto
