Ahh, fall is in the air, come inside, and dress up your walls!
One of my favorite print sales is the Magnum Square Print Sale, and now it’s even better: With a partnership with Aperture, and called Great Journeys, they had added to the image choices in the best way. Some of your favorite images from over 100 photographers.
SOUTHERN AFRICA. Lesotho. School children during a rainstorm. 1981.
© Chris Steele-Perkins / Magnum Photos
What I love about this sale is the low cost of entry. Getting a museum quality print, for the easy price of $100. is pretty great.
Now remember, the prints are 6″x6″.
That allows your to…
A: Buy More
B: commit less wall space to incredible imagery.
C: get someone on your holiday gift list a unique piece of art (once again without making them commit to a large space to hang it!)
There is a time stamp on this sale: It runs from 9AM EST Monday 30 October until 6PM EST Friday 3 November 2017. Signed and estate stamped, museum quality, 6×6” prints from over 100 artists will exceptionally be available for $100, for 5 days only, from shop.magnumphotos.com. And you can order it already matted and framed!
One thing I would advise is to pick images that would live best in the small size. I have found that the size allows me to hang them in key places so I get a great view every time I pass that part of the room. Tile hang a few, perhaps above a light switch you always use, or that empty part of your eye’s view that could use some inspiration.
So here we go:
John Lennon in front of The Statue of Liberty, NYC. October 30, 1974. © Bob Gruen courtesy Aperture
“The U.S. government was trying to deport John Lennon because of his support for the peace movement during the Vietnam War, so I suggested we take a picture at the Statue of Liberty to illustrate that America was supposed to welcome people. Since Lennon’s death, this photo has taken on a new meaning as people think of John Lennon in terms of personal freedom similar to the Statue of Liberty.” – Bob Gruen
Ram Prakash Singh with His Elephant Shyama, Great Golden Circus, Ahmedabad, India 1990
Ram Prakash Singh with His Elephant Shyama, Great Golden Circus, Ahmedabad, India 1990 © Mary Ellen Mark courtesy Aperture
“I’m always looking for something that’s a little on the strange side, some kind of tension or a feeling that is slightly off-putting. This picture of the elephant and his trainer is one of my most well-known pictures from the Indian circus. He had the elephant perform that for me (I think he was showing off). But what makes the portrait work so well is the elephant’s expression. I took several pictures of this act, so much so that the elephant got fed up. He looked at me from the side as if to say, “Ugh, Mary Ellen, that’s enough. This is your last frame.” Afterward, the trainer insisted that I get my picture taken with the elephant’s trunk around me. It was very heavy!”
(this is a particular favorite of mine.)
USA. New York City. 1955. James Dean haunted Times Square. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
For a novice actor in the fifties this was the place to go. The Actors Studio, directed by Lee STRASBERG, was in its heyday and just a block away. “James Dean wasn’t a star when this image was taken. It was days before his breakthrough film came out. He had a passion, but no idea what, if anything, would come of it. He certainly did not know stardom was about to hit. Things weren’t looking bright at the moment; it was a rainy, gloomy day. He was a small, lonely, nobody, on his own journey, walking through Times Square, with big buildings in the background brooding over him. Dennis called him, ‘every man.’ He would say, ‘He’s all of us, wondering what the hell the future will hold.’” – Susan Richards, widow of Dennis Stock
HUNGARY 1968 © Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos
“For me, any photographic journey has the possibility of being great. Even if the journey is going to the corner store to buy a quart of milk. Photographic opportunities are everywhere. From the exotic to the banal. The result depends on a photographer’s curiosity, perception and luck.” – Elliot Erwitt[/caption]
And Who doesn’t love a little Wegman in their lives?
Contact. 2014 © William Wegman courtesy Aperture
“‘Contact’ is a photograph I made with my long-legged dog Topper, by positioning his four legs on three pedestals. The pose is not natural for the dog. He had to concentrate and that gives the image its energy.” – William Wegman
James Baldwin at City College of New York. 1978 © Dawoud Bey courtesy Aperture
“In 1978, James Baldwin received the Langston Hughes Medal. The award is given annually to ‘an influential and engaging African-American writer.’ Baldwin, of course, was that and so much more. His words, convictions, and presence within the American conversation about race were ones that I had been deeply touched by. His writings on what it meant to be an artist, and the responsibility that attended to that, have always stayed with me, continuing to shape my thinking about what makes our work so imperative.
‘The artist is distinguished from all other responsible actors in society—the politicians, legislators, educators, and scientists—by the fact that he is his own test tube, his own laboratory, working according to very rigorous rules, however unstated these may be, and cannot allow any consideration to supersede his responsibility to reveal all that he can possibly discover concerning the mystery of the human being.’ (James Baldwin, ‘The Creative Process,’ from the anthology The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948–1985, St. Martin’s Press, 1985.)”- Dawoud Bey
So I’ve already identified my choices, and instead of boring you with whole list, have a run through on this link.
And your local art supply store or framer should be able to cut you a good matte, and the size does exist in pre-made frames. Yes, I have been thorugh this more that once!
W. Eugene Smith, Pride Street, 1955
Published on April 7th, 2018
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