PHOTO BY: Rene Burri/Magnum Photos

OK folks, this is a really big deal.  The Harry Ransom Center on the University of Texas campus has acquired nearly 185,000 photographs of Magnum’s from the 1930’s – 1990’s.  If you are a photographer, you know exactly what this means.  If you are not, I shall explain:

Magnum Photo Agency is a cooperative of photographers who document happenings all over the world on a daily basis.  This agency is full of heavy hitters, past and present.  Most notably for me: Henri Cartier Bresson who passed away in 2004.  He’s a hero of mine, probably of most anyone who studied photojournalism, as I did.  Besides him, there is such a wealth of creative genius in this collection that I’m all a flutter. 

The Harry Ransom Center is also the home of View from the window at Gras, The first photographic image ever created, which was in 1827.  It houses over 5 million photographs which I believe is the largest photographic collection in all the world.  If I’m wrong, please correct me.  IF you are a lover of photography, this is a must see when you visit Austin!

If photography isn’t your thing, it’s still worth the visit!  It’s home of one of the 21 Gutenberg Bibles known to be in existence, Three copies of the First Folio of William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe’s writing desk, Jack Keourac’s writing journal from when he was writing On the Road, etc etc etc…

Check it out!
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