Crossings – Magnum Square Print Sale Explores Transition And Transformation

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale

Summer has come and gone in North America and as the Autumn season settles upon us it can mean only one thing… it’s time for another Magnum Square Print Sale. A couple times a year Magnum has a time-limited sale where you can buy signed archival prints by your favorite Magnum photographers for only $100 bucks. Hit the jump for all the details!

Crossings – Magnum Square Print Sale

The Magnum Square Print Sale gives you the chance to own a signed (or estate stamped) archival print by one of your favorite Magnum photographers for only $100 bucks! This time around Magnum is working with Aperture to offer prints from over 100 of the top photographic artists in the world. The theme for this sale is “Crossings” and each photographer was asked to choose an image from their archive that best represents this idea of transition and transformation.

These museum quality prints will be available at the magnum online store for $100 bucks for 5 days from October 29 – November 10, 2018.

There are a ton of amazing images in the magnum square print sale – but here are 10 of my favorites along with a statement from each photographer… enjoy!

Peter van Agtmael / Magnum Photos

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale - Peter van Agtmael
A flower seller. Srinagar, Kashmir, India. 2018. © Peter van Agtmael / Magnum Photos

Sometimes photography gives you no time to think. That can be a relief, and an escape. Other times it’s more meditative. The slow crossing of this boat across a lake in Kashmir gave plenty of time to revel in the quiet beauty of the bright flowers against the muted winter landscape. Photography crosses constantly between split-second decisions and slower, more methodical ones, with every variation in between. In a place at war like Kashmir, it can cross equally quickly from the sublime to the violent.

Peter van Agtmael

Magnum Square Print by Peter van Agtmael – $100.00

Jonas Bendiksen / Magnum Photos

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale - Jonas Bendiksen
People waiting for the morning bus in the freezing Siberian winter. Birobidzhan, Russia. 1999. © Jonas Bendiksen / Magnum Photos

I made this image during my nine-month stay in the small town of Birobidzhan in the late 90s. This was the first real story I ever tried telling with photographs. Day after day I wandered around looking for the small, magical moments of everyday life. I still look at this picture, 20 years later, and wonder where these three people were going. Where did they work? What did he carry in his bag printed with champagne glasses?

Jonas Bendiksen

Magnum Square Print by Jonas Bendiksen – $100.00

Matt Black / Magnum Photos

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale - Matt Black
Riders near Cherry Creek, South Dakota, USA. 2016. © Matt Black / Magnum Photos

Temperatures dip into the negative 50s as riders from the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge reservations cross the Dakotas each December to memorialize the Wounded Knee Massacre, where hundreds of Lakota Sioux were killed by the US Army on December 29, 1890. ‘This is a sacred, spiritual journey,’ one rider said of the 15-day, 300-mile trek. ‘A people’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.’

Matt Black

Magnum Square Print by Matt Black – $100.00

Bruce Davidson / Magnum Photos

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale - Bruce Davidson
Back seat of a car. From the series, “Brooklyn Gang.” New York City, USA. 1959. © Bruce Davidson / Magnum Photos

You’re looking at Lefty and his girlfriend, members of a Brooklyn gang who referred to themselves as ‘The Jokers,’ on a trip to Bear Mountain State Park. This photograph is not meant to be risqué. These were young, teenage kids who had a great deal of spirit, energy and love in lives that were reckless, unstable and oftentimes dangerous. In the words of Pauley, who was a friend of gang member Bengie, ‘We didn’t come from dysfunctional families, the whole neighborhood was dysfunctional.’

At the time, I thought it was a little strange to be photographing The Jokers on the way to a state park, a trip sponsored by the Youth Board. The gang was completely out of their element. No mean streets, not a worry on their minds, just time to explore themselves and their surroundings. They were free, and it was captivating.

Bruce Davidson

Magnum Square Print by Bruce Davidson – $100.00

Harry Gruyaert / Magnum Photos

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale -Harry Gruyaert
Crossing in the Ginza district. Tokyo, Japan. 1996. © Harry Gruyaert / Magnum Photos

Since my first trip to Tokyo in 1996, I have always been fascinated by Japan; it’s so different from China or Korea. The attitude of the people is distinctive. You have an incredible sense of security: school children take the metro by themselves; you have the feeling you could leave your camera in a restaurant or a phone booth and would still find it there when you came back a few days later. There is also such a sense of discipline, like at this crossing where everybody waits patiently for the light to change before moving forward.

Something else about Japan: nobody looks at you. It’s paradise for a photographer, but after a while you wonder if you still exist.

Harry Gruyaert

Magnum Square Print by Harry Gruyaert – $100.00

Susan Meiselas / Magnum Photos

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale - Susan Meiselas
From the series “Volunteers of America.” Fifth Avenue, New York City, USA. 1977. © Susan Meiselas / Magnum Photos

Magnum Square Print by Susan Meiselas – $100.00

Joel Meyerowitz / Aperture

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale - Joel Meyerowitz
New York City. 1965. © Joel Meyerowitz courtesy Aperture

A girl on a Vespa on her way to ‘who knows where,’ when the light stopped her at the 72nd street crossing near the Dakota, where John Lennon would one day cross paths with his fate. She takes this moment to finesse a fingernail before she resumes her downtown journey, while I, stopping at the same crossing, but on foot, leap into the street to capture this vision of a dream girl before time takes her on her way.

Joel Meyerowitz
Copyright © Joel Meyerowitz

Magnum Square Print by Joel Meyerowitz – $100.00

Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale - Martin Parr
Ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm. Finland. 1991. © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

In the early 80s, I was teaching in Helsinki and would often go to Stockholm for the weekend on the ferry. This would involve buying cheap alcohol and consuming it en route. The Finnish love a sauna, and this guy is popping out to catch the cool.

Martin Parr

Magnum Square Print by Martin Parr – $100.00

Alec Soth / Magnum Photos

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale - Alec Soth
Del Rio, Texas, USA. 2011. © Alec Soth / Magnum Photos

‘A fissured, empty, almost lunar landscape–seen from a bird’s-eye view. The camera hovers over it.’ So begins Sam Shepard’s script for one of my all-time favorite films: Paris, Texas, by Wim Wenders.

I thought of this scene often while photographing from the rooftop of an RV in the border town of Del Rio, Texas. I also thought of the opening lines of dialogue in Paris, Texas. ‘Do you know which side of the border you’re on?’ Looking at the otherworldly landscape from above, this question seems more metaphorical than geographic. The border I’m most interested in crossing is the one between ordinary life and dreams.

Alec Soth

Magnum Square Print by Alec Soth – $100.00

Larry Towell / Magnum Photos

Crossings - Magnum Square Print Sale - Larry Towell
Mennonite Farmland. Chihuahua, Mexico. 1997. © Larry Towell / Magnum Photos

The story of the Mennonites is a story of migration. The Old Colony migrated to Canada in the late 19th century after fleeing persecution in Europe, and later in Ukraine. Beginning in the 1920s, they left their Canadian colonies lured to Mexico by cheaper land. As the Mexican economy collapsed in the 1980s, many would begin to migrate north again as seasonal farm laborers.

I met these families in the vegetable fields of my own backyard of rural Ontario, where I spent the summers with them and where they eventually invited me back to their Old Colony worlds. When I began in 1990, most of the Mexican settlements had no electricity, no vehicles and no modern amenities. They spoke only Low German. By the time I finished a decade later, their communities had modernized with the introduction of electricity and vehicles. I bore witness to changes in culture and identity that many made as a result of being forced to crisscross the continent in hope of a new beginning.

Larry Towell

Magnum Square Print by Larry Towell – $100.00


The Magnum Square Print Sale has been running for a few years now and they always have amazing images and $100 bucks is the right price. These are real archival chromogenic prints made from digital negatives – so they’ll last a good long time. But more importantly they look really damn good.

But even if you don’t buy a print from the magnum square print sale – it’s a great way to get exposed to the work of some of the best photographers in the world. Head on over to shop.magnumphotos.com and have a look at the whole selection of images. But you might want to keep that credit card handy. It’s hard to leave a Square Print Sale without buying at least one!

The Magnum Square Print Sale is only available from October 29 – November 2. So if you’re thinking of grabbing a print make sure you get over to shop.magnumphotos.com before the sale is over!

UPDATE: The Magnum square print sale is now closed. Stay tuned to StreetShootr and I’ll let you know when the next one is happening!

‘Crossings’ Magnum Square Print Sale in Partnership with Aperture runs from 9AM EST Monday 29 October until midnight EST Friday 2 November 2018. Signed and estate stamped, museum quality, 6×6” prints from over 100 artists will exceptionally be available for $100, for 5 days only, from shop.magnumphotos.com.

Scroll to Top