MagnumTime Interview with Martin Parr

Martin Parr, MagnumTIME

“ I mean we will be restructured but I don’t know whether the restructure is radical enough. I think we need to have less people, we need to be more independent, I think the days where photographers say ‘this is what I want to do, I come to the Magnum office and I try and get people to help me’ are gone. You have to think in terms of being on your own. It’s a very competitive market out there. There’s a brilliant new generation of new photographers so it’s not like we’re the only kids on the block. If you don’t want a job, the next person who doesn’t necessarily have to be in Magnum will be very happy to take it. So we cannot rest on our laurels, we cannot assume because we have many iconic photographers, very well-known photographers, that people are going to give us work so…photographers need to in the end, work out their own relationship to the type of work they can do in a new and difficult environment and off they go and they should do it. You can’t rely on Magnum to supply you with an income anymore. If people think that, this is very foolhardy.”

-Martin Parr, MagnumTime Interview in London, UK 2011