One of the most widely reproduced photographs of a film star is the image of James Dean slogging through Times Square. It was taken by Dennis Stock, a member of Magnum, the photo agency founded in Paris in 1947.
The picture long has been central to how we perceive the film legend, but does anyone think of it as coming from Magnum? Essays on farflung cultures and the world’s unrest, yes. But entertainment? The cooperative started by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour is not known for that.
At least, it wasn’t before “Magnum Cinema,” the archival exhibition organized to celebrate the centenary of movies. Even the version that will open Saturday at the Chicago Cultural Center — containing 111 prints, it’s less than half the size of the French original — still gives a view of classic Magnum reportage that’s unfamiliar.
“We were quite surprised to see that we had 5,000 images [on movie-making],” said Agnes Sire, editor of the project. “But I have been with Magnum for 20 years, so I knew the archives. The big problem was to . . . organize them.”
First, there would be a book. And for that, Sire worked closely with Alain Bergala, one of the chief editors of the celebrated film magazine Cahiers du Cinema. The book — the Phaidon Press English edition runs to 360 pages — would set out the themes for the exhibition.
“We decided to organize the book as a film,” Sire said.
“This means you have photographs of actors in their private life, followed by work on the script, casting the actors, makeup and rehearsals. Then you have pictures of the filming itself, the mounting of the film and, finally, street photographs showing the film at the cinemas.”
The earliest photograph on view is from 1946, showing Alfred Hitchcock studying the hand of Ingrid Bergman during the shooting of “Notorious.” It is by Capa, Bergman’s lover, who had achieved worldwide fame as a war photographer. He sensed the financial importance of Magnum forging a link with Hollywood and began the process through such friends as John Huston and Humphrey Bogart.
Photographs and movies are not, however, always complementary. And throughout the history of Magnum, several lensmen including Cartier-Bresson complained of having to work in a pre-existing artificial environment to create pictures that, in the end, were viewed more for their subjects than their art.
Still, some photographers thrived on such conditions, and pictures by Eve Arnold on the filming of Huston’s “The Misfits” and Nicolas Tikhomiroff on Orson Welles’ “The Trial” survive their specific assignments, becoming human and aesthetic documents.
The chief virtue of the book and exhibition is its range, from Hollywood to Europe and the East following the twilight of the great studios up to the great independent directors today. Most of the images have never before been published, and such is their interest that no one will have cause for complaint.
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“Magnum Cinema: Photographs from 50 Years of Movie-Making” opens Saturday at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., and continues through June 23.
