Magnum Photos has sold its archive of more than 185,000 press prints to Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computer, and two other investors for an undisclosed amount, the agency announced today. Under the terms of the sale, the prints were moved in December 2009 from Magnum’s New York office to the Harry Ransom Center, the humanities library at the University of Texas in Austin.The collection includes prints made from the 1930s to the 1990s from images by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Raymond Depardon, Josef Koudelka, Bruce Davidson, Rene Burri and other Magnum members. Before Magnum began digitizing its archive in 1998, the press prints were circulated among magazines as a way to promote licensing of photo stories or single images. The coding and labels on the back of each print trace the sales history of the print and detail usage terms. Many also contain handwritten notes from the photographer to the darkroom printer or the Magnum archivists. To read more on this article click here.
