OMAHA,NEBRASKA.- The Joslyn Art Museum presents today “Magnum Cinema: Photographs from 50 Years of Movie-Making,” on view through January 4, 2004. The photographers associated with Magnum have worked with movie-makers since the cooperative agency’s creation nearly 50 years ago. Robert Capa, one of the founders of what has become the world’s most prestigious picture agency, had many friends in the film business — including Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Billy Wilder, and, particularly, John Huston — which gave him, and through him other Magnum photographers, access to the charmed world of Hollywood. This privileged connection with the film world has continued to the present day and widened to include movie-makers all over the world.
For this exciting exhibition, more than 100 of Magnum’s on- and off-set photographs have been gathered together for the first time. Their subjects include intimate portraits of such screen legends as Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood, James Dean, and Clark Gable, as well as outstanding directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, François Truffaut, and Andrei Tarkovsky. Films featured include The Misfits, On the Waterfront, and Moby Dick. The roll call of photographers is equally distinguished — Eve Arnold, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Philippe Halsman, Josef Koudelka, Eugene Smith, and Dennis Stock, for example — making this a show for all those who love photography as well as an enjoyable glimpse inside cinema history.
This exhibition is organized by Magnum Photos and is circulated by Curatorial Assistance, Inc., Los Angeles. Support in Omaha has been provided in part by Dr. Lawrence and Jeannette James and Waitt Media.