On June 17, Magnum photographers will review portfolios. The reviewers are Larry Towell, Alec Soth, Susan Meiselas, Trent Parke, David Alan Harvey, Jim Goldberg and Mark Power. Three of the reviewers will be assigned to each portfolio.
No doubt one can take a cynical view (just another way to line Magnum pockets, given that the review costs US$250 and lasts 20 minutes), but personally I think that the fee is reasonable.
Call me an idiot, please. But what does a review consist of? Just constructive criticism from professional photographers, at a cost? Or is there the possibility of being published, or exhibited?
The fee works out to $250 per hour for each reviewer. To me, that sounds pretty reasonable.
Maybe my view arises from the fact that I had a chance last week to see some of these photographers' prints, up close and personal, at the office of a gentleman who prints for some of them.
Having seen those prints, I would pay three Magnum photographers $250 to critique my work without blinking an eye. Indeed, if I was going to be in New York in mid-June, instead of last week and early July, I would sign up for this. But then, I liked Jeff Wall's show at MoMA, which on this profoundly conservative forum is apparently proof that I don't know nothin' 'bout photography.
And no amilne, don't call me an idiot And as for your question about what the Magnum portfolio review is about, you could always try reading what the Magnum site says
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