“He used his camera like a doctor would use a stethoscope in order to diagnose the state of the heart. His own was vulnerable.”, Cartier-Bresson wrote about David Seymour, who liked to be called Chim.
Chim is best known as one of Magnum’s co-founders. Weaving Chim’s life and work, this book discovers this empathetic photographer who has been called “The First Human Rights Photographer”.
In 1947, Chim was one of the four co-founders of Magnum Photos with Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and George Rodger. He also wrote Magnum’s 1955 bylaws, which are still in effect today. But he is the only one of those famous photographers who does not have a full biography to his name. This book examines his life and work from Poland to France to the Spanish Civil War, his work for British intelligence during World War II, his reportage on Europe’s children after the war, his reportages on Italian actors, illiteracy and religious festivals in Southern Italy, his coverage of Israel’s beginnings before his 1956 death during the Suez war. His complex itinerary is emblematic of the displacements and passages of the 20th century.
