2017 Round-Up | Magnum Photos David Hurn’s Swaps

The third edition of Photo London featured an innovative Public Programme including several exhibitions by internationally renowned artists and organisations. One of these exhibitions, located in the Embankment galleries of Somerset House, was David Hurn’s Swaps, presented by the legendary photography agency Magnum Photos.

Marking the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, agency president Martin Parr and his fellow photographer David Hurn co-curated a selection of works from the collection that Hurn has compiled over six decades through a series of swaps with fellow photographers. Key images from Hurn’s distinguished career were juxtaposed with prints from the photographers with whom he has swapped works including Bill Brandt, Bruce Davidson, Sergio Larrain and Diana Markosian.

Commenting on the exhibition selection process involving Parr, Hurn told Guy Kelly for The Telegraph: “Cutting it down myself would have been unbearable. They’re like my children, I began in a time before photo galleries or even colour supplements. It seemed the obvious thing, to try and collect great works, and I wish more young people did it,” he says. “They are photos  I have been drawn to, in genres I like. That’s all.”

 

 

In celebration of the the exhibition at Photo London, the online file sharing service WeTransfer has produced a unique digital publication with Magnum Photos containing images from the exhibition, as well as interviews with Martin Parr and David Hurn, authorities in the field of documentary photography. You can download your very own copy of the PDF zine here.

 

You can now experience David Hurn’s Swaps with the Photo London 2017 Virtual Visit

Photo London will return to Somerset House 17-20 May 2018 (Preview Day 16 May)

All images by Graham Carlow