Frozen in time: Foam Amsterdam celebrates the art of contact sheets
The photographer's 'decisive moment', as Henri Cartier-Bresson tagged it, often comes in the dark room as much as in the initial flurry of action or on the surreptitious stake out. It is the mark of chinagraph on contact sheet that can make history.
'Magnum Contact Sheets', a new exhibition at Amsterdam's Foam photography museum, examines that critical winnowing. The show includes 60 contact sheets, and a print of the single iconic image they contain, from photographers such as Robert Capa, Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Martin Parr, Jim Goldberg and Elliott Erwitt (Magnum members all, though some of the images pre-date the agency's founding in 1947).
The show includes iconic images of the Second World War and the Prague Spring; of Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Margaret Thatcher; conflicts in the Balkans and the Middle East; and Brooklynites taking it easy with the Twin Towers disappearing into smoke across the East River, as well as Martin Parr's pasty British seasiders.
The joy, of course, is in tracking the moments before and after the decisive one. The exhibition includes the photographers' notes, explaining their choice (and, of course, inviting you to disagree and to pick another point frozen in time). It is also inevitably a lament for a lost process; the contact sheet has been replaced by Capture One Pro on a pimped-up Mac Book Pro, where the unchosen image leaves no physical trace.
INFORMATION
'Magnum Contact Sheets' is on view at Foam until 9 December
ADDRESS
Foam
Keizersgracht 609
1017 DS Amsterdam
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Mexican designers show their metal at Gallery Collectional, Dubai
‘Unearthing’ at Dubai’s Gallery Collectional sees Ewe Studio designers Manu Bañó and Héctor Esrawe celebrate Mexican craftsmanship with contemporary forms
By Rebecca Anne Proctor Published
-
At The Manner, New York has a highly fashionable new living room
The Manner, a new hopsitality experience by Standard International in the heart of SoHo, triples up as a hotel, private residence, and members’ club
By Hannah Walhout Published
-
First look – Bottega Veneta and Flos release a special edition of the Model 600
Gino Sarfatti’s fan favourite from 1966 is born again with Bottega Veneta’s signature treatments gracing its leather base
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
‘The danger of AI’, photography and the future at Foam
New project ‘Photography Through the Lens of AI’ asks the big questions at Foam, Amsterdam
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Artist Peggy Kuiper’s impactful figurative works explore her memories and emotional landscape with striking visual intensity
Peggy Kuiper presents ‘The Conversation That Never Took Place’ at Reflex in Amsterdam, featuring over 25 new works (until 13 July)
By Simon Chilvers Published
-
Meredith Monk’s interdisciplinary art sets all the senses singing in Amsterdam show
‘Meredith Monk: Calling’ at Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, is both a series of concerts and a deep-dive into Monk’s eclectic oeuvre
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Heads up: art exhibitions to see in January 2024
Start the year right with the Wallpaper* pick of art exhibitions to see in January 2024
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Carlijn Jacobs and Sabine Marcelis create a surreal fantasy at Foam, Amsterdam
Photographer Carlijn Jacobs has united with Sabine Marcelis on the design of her first solo exhibition, at Foam, Amsterdam
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Caroline Walker curates as Grimm Amsterdam explores domesticity in art
Curating ‘The Painted Room’ at Grimm Amsterdam, Caroline Walker explores the intimacy of interiors
By Emily Steer Published
-
Drift Museum, a blockbusting experiential space, is set to open in Amsterdam in 2025
Drift Museum is a collaboration between art duo Drift – aka Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta – and entrepreneur Eduard Zanen
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Royal College of Physicians Museum presents its archives in a glowing new light
London photography exhibition ‘Unfamiliar’, at the Royal College of Physicians Museum (23 January – 28 July 2023), presents clinical tools as you’ve never seen them before
By Martha Elliott Published