Raw File Exposing the Wired World, One Photo at a Time

The 1964 Beatles film, A Hard Day's Night, was partially shot on a moving train. Photo: David Hurn

Last week, one of the most important photojournalism archives in history, the Magnum Photo Agency’s press prints collection, was sold to Michael Dell of Dell computers. Specifically, to Dell’s private investment firm, MSD Capital LP.

The collection will be housed by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin.

“Right place, right time, right people.” That’s how Eli Reed, Magnum photographer and photojournalism professor at the school, summed up the deal. “It was a long time coming; it didn’t just happen quickly,” he said.

Impressively keeping with Magnum’s cooperative policies, the deal ensures the photographers still retain total ownership of their works. Only the prints used by Magnum through 2003 for publication were sold, not the rights to the images themselves.

Though the price remains undisclosed, the collection of photographs had been insured for a value of $100 million. Industry insider Paul Melcher speculated the price at around $30 million.

The press prints collection comprises of over 185,000 images by over 100 renowned photographers, including seminal talent such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Ernst Haas and Eve Arnold. Magnum was established in 1947 to wrest control from publishers back into the hands of the photographers by allowing shooters to keep the rights to their images. In so doing, Magnum pioneered a new business model for photojournalism.

Read on for background on this historic deal from a variety of perspectives, including the business details, archiving challenges and the academic treasures that the collection presents.

Jacqueline Kennedy on Nov. 25, 1963, at John F. Kennedy's funeral in Arlington, Virginia. Photo: Elliott Erwitt

It’s just good business

In recent years, Magnum was subject to bids from both Getty and Corbis.

“They were looking to buy Magnum’s archive to license,” says Magnum managing director Mark Lubell. “If Magnum sold their archive for licensing then that would be the death of the agency. The archive is one of our revenue generators and you’d actually be giving up the photographers’ copyright.”

It was in 2006 when Lubell first floated the idea to sell its press prints collection with the agency’s photographer-members. The 89 active members gave him sanction to begin inquiry.

Magnum has never had huge cash reserves to expand and adapt the business. The sale to Dell should give them capital to grow with the changing landscape of photojournalism.

For Magnum, the deal is somewhat of a coup, having simultaneously achieved two intended objectives. Firstly, it has secured significant funds to build Magnum’s immediate business intent — namely, direct content distribution. Secondly, it has outsourced the preservation of works and promotion of the Magnum brand to the Ransom Center, a third-party with the requisite specialized skills.

A third-party custodian was always paramount to any deal, but it was a constant variable throughout discussions. Lubell shopped the opportunity across the United States visiting, among others, the Smithsonian and George Eastman House.

“I went around the country talking to different institutions and universities looking for the appropriate place to house this collection. I was also hoping one of those places would directly purchase it or they’d have a network of alums who might be interested in the archive,” says Lubell.

Ultimately, MSD had the financial weight to broker a deal. It is unclear at what stage the Ransom Center and director, Thomas F. Staley were brought into negotiations. David Coleman, the center’s curator of photography, was aware of the deal by the summer of 2009.

“The main story, in my mind,” says Coleman, “Is the Magnum material and we’re happy beneficiaries, to be caretakers, of the collection for a few years.”