Free money from Magnum foundation
Written by David WhiteI thought that might make you prick up your ears.
The Magnum foundation are launching a great initiative, the Magnum Emergency fund. The foundation is seperate to Magnum,
it’s a nonprofit with its own finances and board, operating independently of Magnum Photos.
“Each year, photography professionals will nominate 100 of their colleagues to submit proposals to the fund. An independent editorial board will then select between 10 and 20 projects to support, based on the importance of the issues the photographers propose to address. Completed projects will be distributed widely through traditional and new media, in collaboration with nonprofits or NGOs, and on the Emergency Fund website. Photographers retain the copyright to their work”
As Susan Meiselas says, “We’re not giving out cushy grants that people can live on, we’re giving a boost that can get an important project started. The Magnum legacy is about supporting important work with an open heart, and passing down generations of experience.”
Can’t argue with that. Best of luck, it’s a great initiative.
Discussion (11 Comments)
Question for you David.
You and duckrabbit are very confident in what you do so what if you decide to go for this grant?
1. How do you get invited… do you have to lobby your contacts? Go to the right private views? Know the right people?
2. Lets say duckrabbit get invited to submit a proposal. You spend loads of time on it. Given the proposal will be for “10 to 20 photographers—based on the strength of their proposals and the importance of the issues they propose to address—to support.” – what are you going to feel about giving your time through an invitation and not be in the 10 to 20 out of 100?
Would your proposal not be strong enough, or important enough?
3. Would there be any conflict of interest if Magnum photographers get many of the grants?
4. How is it going to be held accountable if it is based on the opinions of a very small amount of people (say if a story is chosen that is culturally controversial for example)?
5. What is the criteria for success given there appears to be no mention of audience building or public participation?
6. Without the ability to know if a closed top down structure is working or not, how can you get the information to change and adapt to be more effective?
This is a top down structure based on what a very small closed circle at the top think on “the strength of their proposals and the importance of the issues”.
I hope it works of course for many many many reasons, yet how do the photography community know it is not a vehicle to channel resources generously donated in good faith to people only known by the independent selection board?
The issue I see is that you and duckrabbit, Diederik and 50pm, independent shooters giving it their all might have a list of great projects, etc etc. yet how do you get a sniff of this?
Do you just sit there and wait?
I really really really hope it works because if it does not, then the chances of good people giving in good faith the next time to the photographic community would be lessened and that would be a very bad thing indeed.
Thanks IAM, you raise great questions.
To be honest, I’ve been caught on the hop on this one…I saw a note about the foundation, then whacked it up. I should have looked harder, like you did.
Your questions should really be put to Susan Meiselas, So I’ll do that, but in the meantime, I’ll try to answer a few points.
1: I don’t know, it’s not clear, and that’s an issue. I certainly hope it’s not down to knowing the right people.
2: Were the filtering process clear and open, and the chosen work valid, I would not mind going through the process and not be accepted. That’s life. Been doing that sort of thing for far to long to get stressed about not getting chosen. I would just hope that the chosen are very strong, and better ideas than mine.
3 :I would say yes, and it appears at the mo that Magnum togs are getting the benefit. No problem with that, but a purely open and democratic selection would/should prevent that. There needs to be greater clarity on that side of things.
4: Dunno.
5: Hmmm..this is a strong question. Again, I don’t know..’success’ in this context is difficult to pin down. Lack of audience building and public participation is a shame, we should be going the other way. It would be fascinating to have this totally open, so that photographers/photojournalists can really see what the public want covering, and by whom. I think we would be surprised to see what sort of imagery the public understand and like to consume. I bet the imagery would be very different to that chosen by photographers.
6: Simple answer is, we can’t. Again, that’s a shame, and it doesn’t need to be like that.
Thanks for dissecting this, it’s important. It seems to be the same old same old, but in a different wrapper. Hopefully it is not however, and will offer opportunities to all.
David,
What would really be interesting is asking SM where they got the inspiration for the website.
Understanding how they got the idea and the underlying logic behind it would give everyone hope that they have the mentality to drive this forward in a sustainable way.
Knowing their ideas for the future of the platform would be cool and that it is not going to be a case of “mutton dressed as lamb” as they would say in the UK!
Good response to important questions.
Is the World Press Multimedia Award going to be the same?
Hi Iam, interesting indeed.. With 50pm we are trying to take it to the audience directly. We too are making editorial decisions. Said that, we think the audience is more important in that respect than our own preferences. It’s hard to predict if we can make that work, but I hope we do.. Maybe we should try to get 50pm in the portfolio of new media through which these completed Magnum Fund projects can be distributed… By the way, I don’t really mind that selection is not open and transparent, there is natural quality filtering in pushing it through a network of professionals. It would be very hard to have a 100% democratic submission procedure, to have equal rights for all artists effectively, without making it very labor intensive. There is no real problem with that, so long as succes is measured on the strength of the outputted work and on succeeding in getting the (general) public’s attention.. (and not the industry’s attention)…
The real question to me is how much is Magnum’s money as a proportion of the whole investment has gone into the venture. I see 5 supporters, Atlantic Philanphropies, Kickstarter, Humanity United, Photoshelter and the Open Society Foundation.
If Magnum photographers get more than the proportion of dosh they put in, does that raise conflict of interest issues that will affect its focus on “long term emergencies”?
I see Bruce “Russians are Inbred” Gilden, Larry Towell and Dominic Nahr in there.
Does a conflict of interest affect the ability to give wisely when 2 Magnum Photographers are on the board along with 2 nominators too?
Do people want to see a continuation of the same ideologies or some new ones?
Does Larry Towell’s photo essay work Crisis in Afghanistan resonate with the internet generation?
The above are open questions as just for clarification, I love Towell’s work as a photographer but I admit I love old school photojournalism because I studied and fell in love with it. Yet this form of visual language is not being spoken by many people at all anymore – rather like Shakespearean english.
What I do not see is how the generation of Facebook and XBOX’s would bother to see this when they have the likes of Junger/Hetherington’s “Restrepo” and the Call of Duty games as an alternative ways of spending their time. Its is like violinists holding on to a singular vision of worthy music as classical with the rest of world listening to Jazz, Pop, Hip Hop, Techno, Dubstep and the Blues.
The world knows that there is a Crisis in Afghanistan but I am not sure looking past Towell’s B&W beauty I learn anything new at all. In other words, I do not know what it will offer beyond the beauty of its images to those who speak the wireless 3D social networking language of today. I would love to stumble across his images in a quaint old bookshop, blow the dust of the cover and nostalgically peel through the pages and maybe buy the book because I certainly cannot afford to pay a 50% premium to pay the gallery for a print or get invited to see the private opening.
I debate this because I see it risks turning into the photographers community speaking in an old photographic language deciding what the public should see as photographically worthy. It might try socially networking but people have to like it to spread it and for that to happen, surely you must speak the language of the people you want to affect?
Is it photographers and the curating community imposing their ideology?
Do they need more diversity on the boards and nominating? What about Bombay Flying Club, France5, OneDotZero people, Channel 4 in the UK, Current TV in the US, someone from Saatchi and Saatchi, WPP Group, Publicis, AKQA, what about people like us who love the medium and blog about it with so much passion?
Will it burn cash donated until the goodwill towards the magnificient Magnum brand just burn out?
This is why the funding question matters – it is which hands scarce funds generously donated in good will are to be going to end up in that will hugely affect the platform.
So well done Diederik with your “we think the audience is more important in that respect than our own preferences.” The internet will show you if you are right or not in your choices and I am sure you are getting the data you need to get your editorial balance correct so it suits you.
You are right about the impossibility of 100% democracy but one idea to show integrity could be to stop Magnum photographers getting the grants? Just show their great work but explicitly state that they would not fund it?
Would that, in one quick, simple, fast and effective way, eliminate the suspicions generated by the curatorial, closed, top down, Magnum and friends of Magnum, structural bias and hugely increase the level of trust in the one community they need to be on side and most likely to want to follow – other photographers?
Transparency (exactly what journalism calls for in the behaviour of corporates and governments) is that easy right?
Spot on Iam! I agree totally. In my perception, there is significant a level of cliche in how the classic agencies are putting their stories together.. I don’t mind that so much, it’s what got them there It would not be realistic to expect profound change there quickly, where they are now is the result of the developments of decades. But I myself are more interested in new ways to communicate and a newer type of content. Trying to get direct contact with viewers outside the box is incredibly exciting and an incredible learning experience. Taking them serious is so important. We don’t get their $1.99 if we don’t. Already this calls for creative and innovating developments on our end. One of the things we’re researching is an inApp rating and feedback system, we need people to tell us what they like and what not and why. It is absolutely necessary to stay outside of our own bubble. Now, back to the Magnum initiative, like I said, I think you are right. I hope they contribute to the general public and support creative young talent at the same time. Isn’t that what would be expected from such a great intitiave??
“Trying to get direct contact with viewers outside the box is incredibly exciting and an incredible learning experience. Taking them serious is so important. We don’t get their $1.99 if we don’t.”
Brilliant Diederik: Great to see the discipline to find a better balance between business imperative and quality of content! People often think that when I talk about “the business” that I am some cold finance guy with no understanding of the Art. It is all about balance and an understanding about the business side is so deficient. All I read are people describing existing business models in a conventional manner but without applying proper scrutiny from an entrepreneurial basis. That is what every new venture is no matter the underlying product.
Good luck to 50pm, would love to help!!!
Thanks Iam, mucho appreciated! I am happy to live in a time where my oldschool punk DIY can be dusted off and experiencing a Second Life! Well if you would consider trying to write a small piece inspired by the content of our upcoming issue on sports (all documentary photo essays on sports related topics) and make it good and a great read, then you’re welcome to! We have a great selection of work, but there is great value in having additional writing in the thing… Pls email me at 50pm [at] appslides [dot] com if you feel up to it
And in response to your comment: thank you! I think there is common ground for great photographic storytelling and a wider audience’s interests out there. And I do agree that there is, in general, a different visual language that’s appealing to the new generations. It’s a subtle difference, hard to put in words exactly what it is, but it is real. If we can get 50pm to make that mind of connections, man, wouldn’t that be something?
Thank you for the kind offer but sports photography is not my area of expertise (if I have one!) so I would not want to lower the standards over there at 50pm. Another topic, another time… definitely.
mind of connections = kind of connections 😉