From Where to Infinity?
The Library has been combing through the ICP story in the past year. This is a very Zen activity, with one day per week allotted to our certified archivist-librarian, thanks to the generous support of an anonymous donor.
I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing what some of the strata have yielded: a group of Infinity magazines, for example, tell about the early stirrings of what we now know as ICP. There are two particular issues in which Cornell Capa laid out the mission for the ICP, including exhibitions, education and the thing that makes ICP strong – innovation and a commitment to socially engaged media.
The magazine, the voice of the American Society of Media Photographers, ASMP, provided a great forum for Capa to “workshop” the notions of the concerned photographer, of preserving the legacy of same, of perpetuating the kind of picture making that he and his brother, and colleagues at Life and Magnum held dear.
In 1968 Capa writes that Lewis W. Hine best defined the goal of the Fund for Concerned Photography, an organization that he founded with Rosellina Bischof Burri and Eileen Schneiderman:
“There are two things I wanted to do. I wanted to show the things that had to be corrected. I wanted to show the things that had to be appreciated.”
Monsters & Madonnas 