Announcement: Magnum Global Ventures
A message from David Kogan, Magnum Photos Chief Executive Officer, ahead of Magnum’s 70th Annual General Meeting
Next week the Magnum Photos community will assemble in New York for the 70th anniversary of the agency and its Annual General Meeting (AGM). It’s a miracle that Magnum has reached this milestone. Its history has been dominated by great work from its photographers and a permanent sense of financial crisis. In the last few decades we have seen our traditional markets of newspapers and magazines decline and the rise of all sorts of challenges. Until recently we have struggled to grasp the challenge of the digital age.
It is for this reason that today, for the first time in 70 years, Magnum announces the creation of a new company and within it external financing to support new initiatives. Magnum Photos will continue to be owned and run by its members as a cooperative. The photographers who constitute the Magnum Photos membership will continue to own the brand, choose new members to join their ranks, and have the same creative control they have had since 1947, including full ownership of their copyright.
However they will now also own the vast majority of equity in a new company, Magnum Global Ventures, which will control the business, assets and seek new opportunities for Magnum. We are delighted to introduce two new investors, Nicole Junkermann and Jörg Mohaupt, into the Magnum family.
Through their investment, their experience and expertise from the worlds of media, music intellectual property and technology, they will help us shape a new future for Magnum. Most of all, we want to support the photographers in creating new and interesting work, which we will share with our audiences – you – through our publishing platform.
We want Magnum to be around for its 100th anniversary. This is a big step towards that goal.
I want to take the opportunity to thank you all for your continued readership, engagement with, and support of the work of Magnum Photos. We look forward to sharing more exciting projects with you soon. Stay tuned.
For more information, please find the press release here.
