Celebrating Legendary LIFE Photo Editor John G. Morris
“John’s life was shaped by war. He was a child of the Great War and lived thorough WWII and Vietnam — and every other conflict until Iraq and Syria. He followed these conflicts as an observer and a humanist,” Pledge told TIME. “When I look back at what he did with his career, war was his primary concern — it framed his understanding of humanity. Human enlightenment and understanding were always his goals.”
Jean-Francois Leroy, director of the Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival
John G. Morris is this kind of guy you’re always impressed to meet. He had a friend called Robert Capa. Another called Henri Cartier-Bresson. So, like everybody else, I was really intimidated during our first meeting. But he is so generous, he tells you all of the stories you’ve always wanted to hear. He’s a living memory and such a good friend!
I have had the privilege to have another friend, one year older than John: David Douglas Duncan. Both of them are proof that this photo field is a very good way to have a long life!
Vale a pena continuar lendo e vendo, eu garanto!
In Memoriam: John Morris (1916-2017)
The legendary photo editor and former Executive Editor of Magnum Photos has died in Paris, aged 100
Morris was a part of Magnum since the very beginning. Speaking to Magnum in November 2016, he said, “I knew all the founders of Magnum, even before they knew each other. I met Robert Capa just when the war in Europe was starting. He had already covered the Spanish civil war. It was from Capa that I first heard of his dream of a picture agency. It was not called Magnum, it was just an idea that photographers should benefit more from the sale of their work.”
…Throughout all the years we have stayed in touch and followed the ups and the downs of ‘our kind of photography’. John’s writings and lectures on documentary photography have inspired generations of young folk to ‘get the picture’ and his name will be remembered for his enthusiasm and devotion to photography.”
John G. Morris, Renowned Photo Editor in the Thick of History, Dies at 100
His editing of Mr. Capa’s photos of D-Day produced one of the more enduring bits of lore in photojournalism history. As the story went, Mr. Capa sent the London office four rolls of film from Normandy, but in the rush to process them, a darkroom technician overheated them during drying, ruining all but 11 frames.
Or so the technician had told him, Mr. Morris said, and he related that account for 70 years or so.
Recalling the episode, he told NPR in 2002: “I said, ‘I can’t believe it.’ So I ran to look at them with him, and I held up the rolls one at a time. And the first three were just soup. You couldn’t see anything. But on the fourth roll of film, the last one, there were 11 images that were discernible. And those pictures saved us, and those were the pictures that have come to symbolize D-Day ever since.”
But recently, persuaded by newer theories that have since emerged, he came to believe that a darkroom error was not the reason there were so few Capa frames. He told James Estrin of The Times last December that he believed that Mr. Capa had been so rattled during the withering fire at Omaha Beach that he exposed only 11.
…“Great photographers have to have three things,” he continued. “They have to have heart if they’re going to photograph people. They have to have an eye, obviously, to be able to compose. And they have to have a brain to think about what they’re shooting. Too many photographers have two of the three attributes, but not the third.”
Personal History of Photojournalism
by John G. Morris
Book review by Marianne Fulton
Se você não leu o livro de John Morris, não sabe o que está perdendo. Óbvio, se não leu, não sabe mesmo.
Ainda é tempo! Leia! História pura!
E como bônus, “My old friend Mr. John Morris”
Não se assuste, a nota está cheia de bugs. Role a página para baixo, o texto e foto de Juan Esteves estão à sua espera.
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