Get the picture: the Magnum Square Print Sale

(Image credit: ©Alex Webb / Magnum Photos)

This month sees the fourth and final Magnum Square Print Sale - a rare opportunity to pick up a piece of photographic history by some of the agency’s biggest names, at an affordable price.

Until 3 November, more than 100 archival-quality prints - each one either estate-stamped or signed by the photographer - are available via the online shop for just $100 (£76). This year marks not only the 70th anniversary of Magnum but also the 65th year of the Aperture Foundation, the seminal non-profit, New York-based photography publisher. To celebrate, photographers from both organisations have joined forces to contribute to the sale, lending further diversity to the images.

Contributers were asked to offer their interpretations of the idea of great journeys, whether travels that have taken them to far-flung places across the globe or less literal explorations that have influenced their work. The theme takes its inspiration from Magnum co-founder and prominent photojournalist George Rodger. His experiences documenting the atrocities of the Second World War prompted him to re-evaluate his artistic practices, leaving behind his work as a war correspondent to document everyday life around the globe.

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“Over the course of seven years – from 1998 to 2005 – I wandered the streets of Istanbul, from Cihangir to Ayvansaray, from Uskudar to Altinsehir, from Kadikoy to the ancient Theodosian Walls. Meandering its warren of winding street and riding its ferries, I found that serendipity guided me – in its roundabout way. More often than not, I had to lose my way in order to find my most successful photographs. In 2001, I remember crossing the Sea of Marmara after a frustrating series of missed ferries and lost opportunities – a typical afternoon for a street photographer. In the fading light, I thought I was done for the day, and was considering ordering a tea to help fend off the brisk sea air. Then, something caught my eye – an older Turkish man, lost in thought, framed by the pink-purple glow of dusk. His reverie had a kind of mysterious weight to it – hard-to-define, yet almost palpable. In that moment, I slowly began to understand, at least visually, Orhan Pamuk’s notion of ‘huzun’, an untranslatable word that suggests a rich and complicated melancholy that is unique to Istanbul, the writer’s birthplace and one of the most astonishingly beautiful cities in the world. It’s a place that seems haunted by its past and, these days, beleaguered by its present.”

“When I started this series, I was inspired by the way a car can steal the show. Think of iconic car chases in films – they’re often about spectacle, and have little to do with advancing a narrative. Yet the most vivid images are often the ones we remember. I think of these cars as dead-end technologies, high-performance machines that serve no useful function, and blatantly flaunt their own obsolescence. It seems fitting, then, that they remain suspended, light splashing over their lacquered hoods, reflecting the spirit and attitude of their time.”

“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 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.’ Afterwards, the trainer insisted that I get my picture taken with the elephant’s trunk around me. It was very heavy!”