YouTube originally set this video as Private, claiming its content (a collection of images from Magnum Photographers of the Middle East over the last 50 or 75 years) might be disturbing to some viewers. I think this was auto-set because I included the subtitle in the video title or description…
Magnum Chronicles 01: A Brief Visual History in the Time of ISIS
Forewarned is forearmed, I guess.
I challenged the ruling and didn’t hear back, and it looks like the video is wide open now, so… win?
And let me get this out of the way isis DOES NOT REPRESENT ISLAM. I am a Muslim. If you want to see what Islam is, what a Muslim looks like, well, HERE I AM. Say “Hi!”
I don’t bite.
Anyway.
Magnum likely needs no introduction, but they’re a rather exclusive photo agency founded many years ago by some of the giants of the photojournalism genre. Magnum Chronicles is “an occasional series of publications” that allows Magnum “to react to critical issues with a timelines that is difficult in a full-length book.” (Curator’s Note) Issue 01 focuses around the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and includes 75 year old images from George Roger and Inge Morath, photographs of watches from Martin Parr’s collection, featuring portraits of some of the more colorful characters in recent history of the region, and more contemporary photographs of refugees, fighters, and ancient ruins from the likes of Josef Koudelka, Peter van Agtmael, Paolo Pellegrin, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Mark Power, and many others.
I keep wanting to slip into histories of the Arab world, of western meddling; into exhortations or apologetics; into analysis of global capitalism and the whirlpools all over the world, where those who are (or feel) sidelined, ignored, stolen from, aggregate into lose organizations, from Occupy and the Tea Party, to BREXIT and the violence being done to Muslims in southeast asia, by Buddhists. Can you even imagine, Buddhists raping women and killing children? That’s what the world has come to, my friends.
Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah.
But this isn’t about any of that, this is about ‘Magnum Chronicles 01.’ I’ll be brief: if this little newspaper, designed by Yolanda Cuomo Design and printed by Newspaper Club, can rouse such emotions in me, it’s a total winner, and you should try to find a copy—It’s out of stock in the Magnum Store—and keep an eye out for volume 02.
unrated
I’ve been off the unboxing game for awhile. Apologies. This isn’t a restart, really, but I’ll see what I can do. I have a large backlog of videos, and if I don’t post them here and write something around them, what was the point?
