Henri Cartier-Bresson, [Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announces Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, Delhi, India], 1948, gelatin silver print mounted on fiberboard. © Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos
The Image Centre Launches Fall Season with North American Premiere of Magnum’s First
Jul. 29, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Image Centre Launches Fall Season with North American Premiere of Magnum’s First
On view September 10–December 13, 2025
Returning January 14–April 4, 2026
July 29, 2025. Toronto, ON — The Image Centre opens its Fall 2025 exhibition season with Magnum’s First, a landmark presentation that brings the famed picture agency’s long-forgotten first exhibition to North American audiences for the first time. Rediscovered in an Austrian basement in 2006 after lying dormant for more than fifty years, the original installation has been meticulously reconstructed and will debut in Toronto beginning September 10.
Originally titled Gesicht der Zeit (Face of Time), the exhibition premiered in 1955 and toured venues across Austria before being placed in storage and lost to time. It features eighty-three of the original gelatin silver prints, mounted to fibreboard as first presented. The display brings together some of the 20th century’s most celebrated photojournalists, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Werner Bischof, Inge Morath, Ernst Haas, Marc Riboud, Jean Marquis, and Erich Lessing. Together, their work offers a powerful portrait of postwar life across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. With images ranging from Gandhi’s funeral procession to scenes of daily life in Dalmatia and Japan, Magnum’s First captures a defining moment in the evolution of humanist photography and sets the stage for the picture agency’s global rise.
Running concurrently in the University Gallery, Chim’s Children of Europe (1949) offers a poignant and timely complement. Drawing from The Image Centre’s permanent collection, the exhibition revisits Magnum co-founder David “Chim” Seymour’s emotionally-charged photographic series documenting the humanitarian efforts of UNESCO in the wake of World War II. Commissioned in 1948, Chim’s photographs of displaced and vulnerable children across six European nations are at once journalistic and emotionally resonant, revealing both the devastation and resilience of postwar childhood.
Following their fall presentation, both Magnum’s First and Chim’s Children of Europe will return to The Image Centre galleries for a second run, on view January 14 through April 4, 2026.
Also on view this fall are Ali Kazma: North (Salah J. Bachir Media Wall), Isabella Della Penna: Storms and Butterflies (Student Gallery, through October 18), and Jessica Berger: Lost & Found (Student Gallery, October 29–December 13).
All exhibitions are free and open to the public.
For details, visit theimagecentre.ca
About The Image Centre
The Image Centre (IMC) is Canada’s leading institution dedicated to the exhibition, research and collecting of photography. Established in 2012 at Toronto Metropolitan University, in the heart of the city, the IMC welcomes visitors to explore the intersection of photography and culture. Through compelling exhibitions and engaging public programming, the IMC showcases work by emerging, renowned, and anonymous photographers, past and present. With a growing collection of nearly 400,000 photographic objects and an innovative scholarly research program, the IMC is also a vibrant hub for the preservation and study of photography. For more information, visit theimagecentre.ca.
About Toronto Metropolitan University
Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly known as Ryerson University, is Canada’s leader in innovative, career-oriented education. Urban, culturally diverse and inclusive, the University is home to more than 46,000 students, including 2,900 Master’s and PhD students, 4,000 faculty and staff, and 225,000 alumni worldwide. For more information, visit torontomu.ca.
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Feven Tesfamariam, The Image Centre
ftesfamariam@torontomu.ca