RIP. The contact sheet is dead. I spent a LOT of time in my life looking at these. As a former Art Director, I got to look at them, good ones, more than most people, I guess – from Helmut Newton, Bruce Weber, Duane Michaels, Irving Penn. But now, with digital photography, they are no longer “a thing”. A new exhibit, “Magnum Contact Sheets” reveals just how photographers that shot for the venerable agency, Magnum, have captured and edited their best shots the better part of the 20th century. It’s the photographer’s first look at what they’ve captured on film, and gives the viewer a look inside how they shoot and think and what’ ends up being THE shot. This show includes both celebrated icons of photography and lesser-known surprises and functions as an “epitaph” to the long-lost contact sheet. This exhibition expands upon the exhibit of the same name that premiered at the ICP in 2012. Its runs through July 6. And you can purchase a limited edition book and enlarged versions of these shown here. I’m seriously thinking about Elizabeth Taylor by Burt Glinn.

The Misfits (John Huston, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe) by Eve Arnold

Elizabeth Taylor on the set of “Suddenly, Last Summer” by Burt Glinn