Clearly Mr Barnack foresaw the need to have several shots at the target, but I'm not convinced that quantity makes up for quality of vision. In the foreground, a boy reclines on a hammock, idly contemplating the scene, just as we contemplate the scene with him. Personally I'm fairly diligent with storage and back-up of digital files (touch wood) and still have many pictures from my college days, 15 years ago. Not many people are actually willing to do this, especially when you compare it to the number of people who do 5 shots posts! I may not be watching the photographer actually taking the photographs but, where a photograph can lie, I would argue that a contact sheet does not.

A few shots from the reverse angle, with Sunbathing Woman and Push-Up Man in the foreground and Hammock Boy in the background. I also enjoy working on collaborative projects, alternative processes, and developing and printing in my makeshift home darkroom. In the text, Franck describes running to the scene with her camera, “my Leica M3 (I used a 50mm lens and Tri X Kodak film), wondering if shutting down to f.Mikhael Subotzky The entire Mallies family survive off Michelle's sex work and her father's disability grant. This books allows us to see the mixture of talent, chance, watchfulness and diligence behind each successful picture. As a side note, what has surprised me is how well these old negs have scanned, some (but obviously not all) look like they could have been taken yesterday - the glory of film! Presenting a remarkable selection of contact sheets and related material by 67 Magnum photographers, Magnum Contact Sheets lays bare the creative methods, strategies and editing processes behind some of the world’s most iconic images — was the final image a set-up, or a serendipitous encounter; did the photographer work to extract the potential from a situation, or was it the fabled ‘decisive moment’? This is a fascinating book, but overall the photographs selected for discussion create a dismal view of humanity.

And indeed, the challenges are sometimes far more grievous than, say, the possibility of overexposing Tri-X. I hoped that somebody would take care of me and take me away … there were three of us photographers present. This is a book to be enjoyed in excellent lighting – perhaps gorgeously lit from the side by a bright window – not the light of a dim bedside lamp, which is how I read it as I only really get about 20 minutes before I go to sleep to read anything. If you are sitting on the fence about purchasing this book, or picking it off the shelf, like me, I heartily recommend you do. The painters – there are several – clamber up and down the girders, curve their bodies into improbable angles, stand on tiptoe like ballet dancers as they reach up to paint overhead.This landmark book, published just as the shift to digital photography threatens to render the contact sheet obsolete, celebrates the sheet as artifact, as personal and historic record, as invaluable editing tool, and as a fascinating way of accompanying great photographers as they work towards, and capture, the most enduring images of our time.