Description

Founded in 2007, the Magnum Foundation is a descendant of Magnum Photos, the documentary photographers’ collaborative founded in 1947. Magnum was established to nurture photography as a means of critical storytelling and social documentation.   In 2021, Magnum received a grant from the Luce Foundation to support projects that “explore and elevate suppressed histories, revisit monuments and received narratives, and foster creative thinking about constructing new paradigms.”    The initiative takes seriously the role of images in shaping public discourse about democracy and civic culture. Two cohorts of artists were supported by the first grant, and their work is featured in the most recent issue of Aperture magazine, which is entirely devoted to the program. This grant would enable Magnum to select a third cohort, partly satisfying the enormous demand from the field. Most of Luce’s funding would be used to provide grants to the Counter-Histories fellows, who gather regularly on-line to present their work and receive feedback.