NEW YORK (AFP).- An exhibition spanning the second half of the 20th century and celebrating the last 70 years of the oldest photographic cooperative in the world opened in New York Friday.

James Dean striding through Times Square, Pablo Picasso holding a parasol for French painter Francoise Gilot and Marilyn Monroe on "The Misfits" set -- just three of the iconic Magnum photographs that capture the spirit of the 20th century.

More than 240 prints and 300 projected photographs are on display in "Magnum Manifesto" exhibition at Manhattan's International Center of Photography until September 3.

Magnum Photos was created by Robert Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and two other photographers on February 6, 1947 after popping open a bottle of champagne at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Cartier-Bresson intended it as a "photographic utopia" or "construction of observers."

The New York exhibition has been divided into three chronological and thematic categories.

Photographs from 1949-68 focus on post-war ideals of commonality and utopianism; the 1970s and 1980s on a fragmenting world, subcultures and minorities; and 1990-2017 a world under threat, such as Thomas Dworzak's images of the Taliban and Alessandra Sanguinetti's from the aftermath of the 2016 Nice bombing that killed 86 people.

Other topics are mental illness or drugs, says Clement Cheroux, one of the exhibition's two curators.

Celebrating 70 years in the business, Magnum's 49 photographers continue to chronicle the world.

Along the way there have been sources of tension, such moving into the realm of commercial commissions -- something disliked by traditionalists but seen as a way of bringing in revenue at a time when the media industry is increasingly starved of resources.

Magnum has survived as others have fallen by the wayside: Gamma, for example, filed for bankruptcy in 2009 before being bought by photographer Francois Lochon, while Sygma and Sipa went into liquidation in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

Neither was commercial photography the only savior -- Magnum has diversified further with exhibitions, book publishing and art photography.

"It remains precarious," says exhibition co-curator Clara Bouveresse. "It's a huge challenge to find a viable economic model for photographers today," she says.

After closing on September 3, the exhibition will travel on to Rome and Berlin.


© Agence France-Presse