How To Work A Scene
As HCB says when you visit a restaurant or your friends for dinner, they don’t invite you in their kitchen to take a look at their cooking pot or frying pan. However, thanks to the Magnum Contact Sheets we will be able to have a glimpse into the process of iconic photographers.
Today what I aim to learn is how many pictures they shot when on the field, as well as what is their selection process.
1. HCB - “SEVILLE, SPAIN 1933”
From the contact sheets we can see:
Total pictures shot: 16
Horizontal shots: 10
Vertical shots: 6
# of selected pictures: 2
HCB is meticulous in his process. As I see, he prefers to work the scene and makes sure there are enough different perspectives captured. If I recall Jimmy Chin’s interview for “Masterclass” where he shares insights into his stories developed for NG. Long story short, he shoots about 35-50 000 pictures to get a final selection of 12 pictures. Seems this process is an evolution of what HCB was doing in the 50s.
2. ELLIOTT ERWITT - “MOSCOW, JUL 1959”
From the contact sheets we can see:
Total pictures shot: 35
Horizontal shots: 31
Vertical shots: 4
# of selected pictures: 3
The story of this series is quite interesting. At the time Erwitt was hired to shoot commercial pictures for an American brand home appliance attending the expo in Moscow. And by chance, he was at the right place and time, namely the meeting between Chruschow & Nixon right next to his company exhibition booth. Fortunately, Erwitt had with him his camera and was able to shoot those incredible pictures of the leaders of the two super powers at the time.
Note to self: always have my camera with me!
3. JOSEF KOUDELKA “PRAGUE INVASION, 1968”
Overall Jozef Koudelka is very careful with the usage of film. When the invasion of Prague happened he was a photographer in a Theatre. At that time, he had no experience with photojournalism. Nevertheless, as Jozef confessed in the book “Magnum Contact Sheets”, he sensed this was a critical historical moment, and it was time to grab his Exacta camera.
From the contact sheets we can see:
Total pictures shot: 30
Horizontal shots: 29
Vertical shots: 1
# of selected pictures: 12
If I look more carefully at the scenes, and how we worked I can conclude the following. He shoots between 2 & 6 shots to make a great picture. Nevertheless, the entire sheet is iconic because it turns him into a photojournalist. About 1 year later these images landed on the desk of Elliott Erwitt who is leading Magnum. Nobody believed all those pictures are shot by one photographer. Everyone at Magnum wanted more and more pictures from the same creator. To protect his own family for the next 16 years all pictures published come under the name “Copywriter Magnum PP” where PP stands for Prague Photographer.
Another fun fact is that Jozef Koudelka is far more popular in the US and abroad than in his home - Czechoslovakia. During my visit to Prague in May 2021, I spoke with my local colleagues from Czech & Slovakia. I was surprised to find out that nobody there know about Jozef Koudelka and what he had done to give a voice to the events of “The Prague Invasion from the summer of 1968”. Also in Prague, there was no museum or gallery to host any of Koudelka’s pictures. That is totally mind-blowing to me.