Magnum embarks on historic colour archive digitisation of 650,00 colour slides

Magnum Photos, in collaboration with Fujifilm and the Heritage and Photography Library of Paris (MPP), have. embarked on the project called A WORLD IN COLOR (the US spelling) – a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to preserving and revitalising one of the most significant archives of colour photography in modern history.

This ambitious project marks the first-ever digitisation of Magnum’s Paris colour library archive, a treasure trove of photographic history that has remained dormant for decades.

Hidden away within the 19th-century walls of the Saint-Cyr fort, this extraordinary archive consists of more than 43,000 meticulously organised slide sheets, amounting to an estimated 650,000 colour slides. Spanning the 1950s through the early 2000s, these images encapsulate over half a century of global history, cultural shifts, and artistic evolution. Yet, for more than 20 years, much of this collection has remained untouched and unseen – until now.

Through the expertise of Magnum’s dedicated Archive and Production teams, a selection of these long-lost images is finally being brought back to life. Utilising the Fujifilm GFX100II with the GF120mmF4 R LM OIS WR Macro, this digitisation effort not only ensures the preservation of these iconic works but also provides an opportunity for a new generation to experience the rich visual storytelling that defines Magnum Photos.

It's interesting to note that Magnum is using a camera with a macro lens instead of a dedicated film scanner. There can be a couple of reasons for this. There are some stand-alone flat-bed style scanners on the market such as the Plustek OpticFilm 120 Film Scanner, ($2,000+) though considered 'professional', often the weakness of many scanners are the lenses that are usually not top-of-the-line – as they have to fit within the budget of the whole scanner. They also can take quite a while to scan each image, which may be anywhere between 5-30 seconds per scan. And when you have hundreds of thousands of images to scan – all those second add up.

Another way to scan film is by using a drum scanner. Although there have been no new drum scanners manufactured for over two decades, they are a bit of an old-school standard with a revered place in photographic laboratory history – and they are still used. So even if Magnum could get their hands on a drum scanner, the process is actually painstakingly slow with each scan taking many minutes to set up and process.

In comparing this to a $10,500 100MP camera with a $4,000 macro lens, you can understand that the quality of the lens and high megapixel count is actually a higher resolution than that of a 35mm slide, or negative. Also the the 'scan-time' is only a fraction of a second.

Organised by Country, Theme, and Personalities, the extensive colour library archive encapsulates the agency's pre-digital era, offering a vivid glimpse into the latter half of the 20th century when press photography heralded the advent of colour. Showcasing everything from landmark historical events to intimate everyday moments from across the globe, these images offer a vivid window into the past, enriching our understanding of the evolution of colour photography.

A World in Color is more than just an archival project; it's a tribute to the pioneering photographers who captured these moments, and with any luck, new perspectives and angles of historic events that previously didn't 'make the cut' on the original news days.

You can read more about the project on the Magnum website.