Bruno Barbey “This picture was taken in 1980 during Bruno Barbey's second trip to Shanghai (he first visited in 1973). The year 1980 corresponded to the beginning of China's Reform and Opening era, which defini (...)
tively marked the end of the decade of Cultural Revolution. People aspired to a better life and better living: in the Yu Garden of Shanghai, one of the most scenic Chinese classic gardens in Shanghai, a woman was posing for a Rolleiflex-toting photographer, she was wearing a yellow polo and proudly flaunting her red handbag, which would have been a criminal possession during the Cultural Revolution. Yellow and red happen to be the two colors of Kodak brand identity, and Bruno Barbey was indeed using Kodachrome slides! The fact that the woman appeared on the right side of the picture, in contrast to the shadowy figures on the left, also creates a divide between color photography (right) and black & white photography (left), which was still very much a subject of debate in the world of photojournalism in the early 1980s. Yu Garden being located in the old Chinatown, one can see this picture as a perfect invitation to revisit Shanghai, a city that owes its cosmopolitan prosperity today and its cultural heritage to the Opium Wars that forced-open it to the West and to the world.” - Jean Loh, curator and director of the Beaugeste Gallery in Shanghai
YuYuan Gardens. Shanghai, China. 1980. © Bruno Barbey | Magnum Photos
Carl De Keyzer What is your vision of the city ?
I used to love working, living in big cities. I lived in a semi-big city for 35 years. Visited and worked in cities of 100 different countries. 4 years ago we mo (...)
ved to the countryside. I don't miss the city.
What is your personal view about this city (Havana / Cuba) through this image?
The end of ideology, a tired nation waiting for something new.
Havana, Cuba, from the book 'Cuba, La Lucha' 2015. © Carl De Keyzer | Magnum Photos
Ian Berry “Berlin is a great city, especially for a photographer. The changes have been enormous between 1963 when I took this photograph and a more recent visit after the Eastern sector had opened up when I (...)
shot a supplement for Geo Magazine.
I’m delighted to have the image displayed in the Metro. It might bring back memories for the older generation and be an eyeopener for the younger generation as to how life can change in just a few decades. This was the first time at Christmas that the Berlin Wall was opened to allow a few East Berliners to cross the wall and meet relatives in the West they had not seen for years. This was quite an emotional moment for me and I guess for the two brothers in the image. I had gone to Berlin specially and was not sure the Wall would actually open and waiting outside in the early morning, this was the first man I saw emerge.
I subsequently crossed the border myself into East Berlin and found it hard to believe the sad decaying city in such contrast to the glitzy flamboyant Western sector. Whilst in the East I was nonetheless struck by the irony of the Vopos (East Berlin border guards} having Christmas trees by their guard huts in the so called communist sector. The truth is, in any divided city or country, the people on either side are much the same.”
Berlin. West Germany. 1963. © Ian Berry | Magnum Photos
Elliott Erwitt Elliott Erwitt ; Photo Poche, Actes Sud, 1988
"Sometimes, humour lays in the photograph, not in what you are photographing. You can photograph the most biting situation and make a lifeless photog (...)
raph, where nothing is happening. On the contrary, you can take a picture of nothing, of someone scratching his nose, and it turns into a great photograph. What happens in the reality, the anecdote, and what you have on the picture are two things completely different."
New York City, USA. 2000. © Elliott Erwitt | Magnum Photos
René Burri What was René Burri’s personnal view on the city though this image ?
“The protests which drew over 10,000 students to Tiananmen Square were violent, brutal and repressive. While in the middle of (...)
this, the scene captured in this photograph caught René Burri’s eye”. Clotilde Burri
In René Burri, Photo Poche, Actes Sud, 1999
“Burri goes beyond particular events and cuts to the core of human life. Although he traveled to all the conflict spots in the world, his images are not violent. They show modern life, but its abuses, pains and triumphs are all sublimated under the concept of the human condition.“ Corinne Diserens.
Beijing, China. 1989. © René Burri | Magnum Photos
Guy Le Querrec “I have always been concerned with interactions between the eye and the ear. Here, I photograph Archie Shepp in Barbès. I stick to the subject, you can feel the presence of the city in the backgrou (...)
nd, you can hear the noise of the city and the metallic roar of the aerial metro. The city offers a music that the eye catches. “
The American jazz musician Archie SHEPP (saxophones, piano, vocals) after the shooting. Barbès Rochechouart district, Rue Guy Patin, 10th arrondissement. Wednesday 9th November, 1983. © Guy Le Querrec | Magnum Photos
Erich Hartmann “You will understand that there is no way that I can know what Erich was thinking when he took this picture. I can only tell you that he was never without a camera as is evident here where he photo (...)
graphed this complex image when he was a standing passenger on a crowded bus.” - Ruth Hartmann, wife of photographer
Girl in bus and figures in street during snowstorm. New York City, USA. 1967. © Erich Hartmann | Magnum Photos
Stuart Franklin “Even on rainy mornings, people go to work riding a bike. In times of planned economy, the choice of clothing was quite limited in these moments. Over the last 30 years, Chinese people have increas (...)
ingly bought bicycles, a means of transport that saves time significantly compared to the bus that only covers 40 percent of the trips in the city. I have photographed Shanghai while riding a bicycle.”
Cyclists in the rain. Shanghai, China. 1993 © Stuart Franklin | Magnum Photos
Constantine Manos What is your personal view about this city through this image?
The picture was made in a small seaside city in Florida in the U. S. A. called Daytona Beach. Every year during the first week of M (...)
arch around 50,000 motorcyclists from all over the U. S. gather to drive around and have a good time. I have gone there many times to take pictures because during that week this place is a paradise for a "street photographer". This picture was made on a crowded street with many people going by in the late afternoon, so there were opportunities for interesting pictures. I did not take the phone off the hook.
Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. 1997. © Constantine Manos | Magnum Photos
Thomas Hoepker “Pictures exist to be seen. Hopefully this picture transmits the right message: horror and war can happen out of the blue and a sunny sky. But life goes on.”
Young people relax during their lunch (...)
break along the East River while a huge plume of smoke rises from Lower Manhattan after the attack on the World Trade Center. Brooklyn, New York, USA. September 11, 2001. © Thomas Hoepker | Magnum Photos
Richard Kalvar What is your vision of the city?
I ’m a native New Yorker. My idea of the city is a place intensely concentrated, crawling with people, and thus a rich lode to be mined by a photographer. I just (...)
spent a little time in Miami, where I was completely disoriented. Some “city”! There was no one in the streets.
What is your personal view about this city through this image?
There’s always something to look at.
Woman looking at herself in store window. New York City, USA. 1969. © Richard Kalvar | Magnum Photos
Gueorgui Pinkhassov "To me, Instagram and the urban space are the most direct, modern and original locations. They are the places in which I would rather present my pictures. Nowadays, art is out of museums and galler (...)
ies, and its presence in the urban space is a lot more interesting."
The new metro. Tokyo, Japan. 1996. © Gueorgui Pinkhassov | Magnum Photos
Inge Morath © The Inge Morath Foundation This image of the Llama, even though shot in 1957 is relatable even today due to its simple but absurd subject matter. This image speaks to the quirkiness of life in the big city; in this case, Lin (...)
da the Llama. One does not necessarily need to know the full story behind it, as the photo will grab the attention of any observer of any age group. For it to be displayed in the Paris Metro, this iconic photo will bring broader awareness towards Inge's work, in a city where she once lived in. - Sana Manzoor, Inge Morath estate
A Llama in Times Square. New York City, USA. 1957. © Inge Morath © The Inge Morath Foundation | Magnum Photos
Martin Parr What is your vision of the city?
Cities are full of people, chaos and doer, so this is a great place to take photos.
What is your personal of the city expressed through this image?
This is Wa (...)
lsall and I love all of the surreal elements all coming together, from the coffee cup on the right, through to the balloons and the guy from Poland, busking.
What does it mean to you to have this image on display in the Paris Metro to a broad audience?
I have been entranced by the Paris metro photo shows, so great to be part of this.
Walsall town centre. England. 2011. © Martin Parr | Magnum Photos
Raghu Rai “Mumbai being a Bollywood city - India on average produces one feature film a day. Bollywood creates dreams for everybody - Mumbai is known as city of dreams and dreams for everyone. Even while tr (...)
avelling in a taxi - the interior decor has such contrasting patterns and colors you wonder - the dreams continue. It may not be a reflection from the past but this is how contemporary world dazzles you at times.”
Inside a specially decorated taxi. Mumbai, India. © Raghu Rai | Magnum Photos
Moises Saman “Port-au-Prince is a magical city. Every morning at dawn, when the first hints of daylight filter through the decaying architecture, it is when the line between the real and the otherworldly blur, (...)
and the drama of daily life plays out among the characters and landscape scarred by a history of joy and violence.”
Downtown Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of January 12th's earthquake. Port-au-Prince, Haiti. January 18, 2010. © Moises Saman | Magnum Photos
Jérôme Sessini What is your vision of the city?
Being born in a small and very quiet town, I experience mixed feelings in big cities, I feel a sense of fascination for megacities as well as rejection, and someti (...)
mes anxiety. A feeling of freedom and alienation, promiscuity and loneliness. I believe that human beings are made to live in contact with nature and city life is a constraint for the body and the mind.
What is your personal perspective on this city expressed through this image ?
I think that this image evokes my vision of the city as a voluntary confinement with the others - loneliness.
What does it mean to you to have this image on display in the Paris Metro to a broad audience?
Photographing is a selfish act, however I like the idea of sharing it with the wider audience and that once they are made, photographs don’t belong to me anymore but they exist thanks to the people’s glance. The stations of the Paris metro enable to touch a large public that is not necessarily an elitist audience like in museums or galleries. There, there will be photographs offered to the people’s eye, photographs that will be confronted to their direct and emotional judgment.
Rationing store. Downtown Havana. Cuba. January 6, 2008. © Jérôme Sessini | Magnum Photos
Alessandra Sanguinetti “Paris to me is a swirling spiral with a breathtaking, splendid, fairytale-like center that unwinds into layered wonderfully intricate neighborhoods that seem to hold secrets I, as a foreigner, wil (...)
l never get to glimpse at no matter how much I might pry. I'm left with imagining them, and that's good enough.”
Jardin des Tuileries. Paris, France. 2016. Immersion, Fondation d'Entreprise Hermès / Aperture Foundation. © Alessandra Sanguinetti | Magnum Photos
Alec Soth What is your vision of the city?
As someone who has never lived in major city, I've always seen cities as somewhat exotic and remote from my experience. The city lives in my dreams.
What does (...)
it mean to you to have this image on display in the Paris Metro to a broad audience?
One of my favorite things about photography is its accessibility. Unlike a lot of contemporary art, photography can be appreciated by a broad audience. So I'm thrilled to have my work shared in such a highly trafficked public venue.
What is your personal view about this city through this image?
My relationship to the city is simultaneously romantic and distant. I was able to express this duality by making a self-portrait that simultaneously shows me confined to my hotel room and floating dreamily over the city.
A self-portrait of Alec Soth in his hotel room at the Park Hyatt Hotel, where Lost in Translation was filmed. Tokyo, Japan. 2015. © Alec Soth | Magnum Photos
Matt Stuart “I wish I could claim I had the famous RATP logo in mind when I shot this in Oxford Street, London but it bears an uncanny resemblance.a lady looking into the sun. ”
Oxford Street. London, Eng (...)
“I wish I could claim I had the famous RATP logo in mind when I shot this in Oxford Street, London but it bears an uncanny resemblance....a lady looking into the sun. ”
Oxford Street. London, England. 2004. © Matt Stuart | Magnum Photos