MADRID.- The agency international photography company Magnum, created in 1947 by Robert Capa, won today -June 12- in Espaa he Princess of Asturias Award of Concordia, for his iconic work to capture in images the most relevant events in the world for almost eight decades.
“Magnum is deserving of the award for his iconic and demanding work of photojournalism spanning almost eight decades, in which he has guarded and transmitted the testimony of the most relevant events of his time,” the jury explained in its ruling.
“The agency, which among its founding partners included, in addition to Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour, all considered fathers of photojournalism, has been an example of press freedom and risk-taking, continued the jury, headed by the regional president of Asturias, Adrin Barbn.
Dotacin Princess of Asturias Award
Established in 1981, the Princess of Asturias Awards, named after the heir to the Spanish Crown, Leonor de Borbón, are endowed with 50,000 euros (almost 54,000 dollars) and a sculpture created by the late Catalan artist Joan Mir.
Magnum was born after the Second World War, as a project by Capa, the photographer who accompanied the Allied troops in the landing in Normandy, and his other three partners, who formed a cooperative so that its members had total independence.
In this way, Magnum photographers retain the copyright on their works and can market them.
“A more just world”
With offices in New York, Paris and London, Magnum has published its photographs in the main media and magazines in the world, such as The New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian, Paris Match o National Geographicand many of its collaborators have been honored with individual exhibitions in important museums.
The agency’s archives, which have more than a million photographs, function as a visual record of the main events of recent decades, such as the Second World War, as seen by Capa, speeches by Malcolm X, captured by Eve Arnold, or Fidel Castro’s entry into Havana in 1959, portrayed by Burt Glinn.
“The agency created the Magnum Foundation in 2007 to train photojournalists through scholarships, and in recent years it has also carried out photo sales to raise funds to give to organizations such as the Red Cross in conflict zones, such as Ukraine” , indicated the Princess of Asturias Foundation in a statement.
“This award represents great support for the agency and encourages us to continue working on building a more just world that is far from extremes and fanaticism,” said the current president of Magnum, the Spanish Cristina de Middel, in a statement. disclosed by the foundation.
last award of 2024
Magnum joins a list of Concordia award winners that includes the charities Doctors Without Borders and Caritas Espaola, Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and the European Union.
Last year, the British NGO Mary’s Meals won this trophy for its fight against hunger in schools.
The Concordia award is the last of the eight awards of the 2024 edition of the awards, considered the most prestigious in the Ibero-American world, which are awarded annually, and at the rate of one per week, by the Princess of Asturias Foundation.
Among the winners this year are the Spanish singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat, in the Arts section; the Franco-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi, in Humanities; the Spanish badminton player Carolina Marón, in Sports, and the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), in International Cooperation.
The Social Sciences prize went to the Canadian intellectual Michael Ignatieff, the Literature prize went to the Romanian poet Ana Blandiana and the Scientific Research prize went to five experts behind the anti-diabetes drug Ozempic.
The awards will be presented by Kings Felipe and Letizia and their daughters, in October in a ceremony in Oviedo, capital of Asturias.
FUENTE: AFP
