Magnum Photos is excited to launch Beyond Magnum, an in-depth talks programme created to address and explore some of the challenges facing our industry today. Through a series of free talks in chapters addressing Archives, Representation and the Future of Photography, speakers will share thoughts and engage in debate across a range of issues. Each section will be led by respected figures from the world of photography and speakers will range from practitioners to academics to subjects of photographs.
In August 2020, concerns were raised about certain images and keywords that were publicly accessible in Magnum’s archive online. Magnum photographers and team members agreed that they needed to look not only at these images, but at the entire archive: hundreds of thousands of images spanning from the 1930s to today, material that had accumulated there over the agency's nearly 75 year history.
In having conversations about the archive, its role and purpose, and the right way to handle historic images, we realised that this was an opportunity to address many core and sometimes difficult subjects: power dynamics in photography, issues such as race, sexuality, childhood, vulnerability, consent, and political sensitivity. We reached the conclusion that a full-scale review of Magnum’s historic archive was necessary.
Through this process, we have given a lot of thought to and continue to assess the best way to present these historic and contemporary images. As well as our internal discussions, we also felt the need to be more present in current conversations happening within the photographic community about these issues, and to engage publicly with some of the important questions being asked of us and our industry.

By opening up a debate between the generations, cultures, and disciplines of our collective, we intend to take a deeper look into Magnum’s archive and diverse photographic approaches, past and present, and share this debate, its challenges, and lessons, with our audience and critics.
With this upcoming series of talks, we also want to use our platform to bring other voices into the conversation that will help us analyse the challenges that the photography world at large is facing. By engaging industry figures and thinkers from other fields, as well as the subjects of the photographs, or those reading them, this forum seeks to engage critically, and to contribute crucial perspectives around issues impacting our industry, for both individuals and institutions.