Soon : 08/12/2025 – 08/03/2026
What are the United States? Drawing on the archives of the Magnum Photos, Magnum America invites visitors to reflect on this question. Structured by decades, from the 1940s to the present day, the exhibition – organised by Fort Bard and Magnum Photos as part of their long-standing collaboration on photography and cultural history – juxtaposes ordinary and extraordinary people and events. It offers a moving portrait of the United States’ past and present while also questioning its future. The exhibition is inspired by the extensive publication Magnum America, published by Thames & Hudson in 2024.
Since its founding in 1947, Magnum Photos has been closely intertwined with the story of the United States – its ideals, contradictions, and transformations. Created in the aftermath of the Second World War by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David Seymour, the agency quickly found in the United States both a subject and a stage: a nation that projected freedom and abundance, yet was marked by social tensions, cultural upheavals, and political divides.
For many of Magnum’s European founders, America represented both a new frontier and a testing ground for photographic storytelling. Capa captured the glamour of Hollywood and the optimism of postwar life, while Cartier-Bresson’s attentive eye observed the country’s rituals and rhythms with anthropological detachment. As the agency grew, American photographers such as Eve Arnold, Elliott Erwitt, and Bruce Davidson brought unique perspectives, documenting everything from the civil rights movement and Vietnam War protests to intimate scenes of everyday life in small towns and big cities.
Over the decades, Magnum’s lens has followed the triumphs and traumas of the United States: V-Day, the March on Washington, Woodstock, 9/11, presidential campaigns, sporting events, cultural milestones, natural disasters, and the deep scars of racial and economic inequality. Together, these images form a vast mosaic – sometimes celebratory, sometimes critical, always searching – an ongoing reflection on what the United States are, and what they might yet become.
Photo. © Raymond Depardon/Magnum Photos, 1968
