The Image Centre in downtown Toronto will stage the North American debut of Magnum Photos' first-ever exhibition, originally titled 'Gesicht der Zeit' (Face of Time) and shown in Austria in 1955-56. The show, lost for half a century, was rediscovered in 2006 in the basement of the Institut Français in Innsbruck, Austria, along with its original poster and hanging instructions. It features 83 original gelatin-silver prints by legendary Magnum photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Inge Morath, Ernst Haas, and Marc Riboud. The exhibition will run concurrently with 'Chim’s Children of Europe,' a show devoted to Magnum co-founder David 'Chim' Seymour's 1949 Unesco project on postwar European children.
This restaging matters because it resurrects a pivotal moment in photographic history—Magnum's transition from a press agency into a cultural institution in the 1950s, expanding beyond photojournalism into books and exhibitions. The meticulous reconstruction, including original crates and labels, offers a rare glimpse into mid-century curatorial practices and the early branding of one of the world's most influential photography collectives. The concurrent Seymour exhibition adds depth by highlighting Magnum's humanitarian documentary tradition.