Quote: "I think that what you've got to do is discover the essential truth of the situation, and have a point of view about it."
Burt Glinn joined Magnum Photos in 1951 and became a full Member in 1954.

American, b. 1925

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Burt Glinn served in the United States Army between 1943 and 1946, before studying literature at Harvard University, where he edited and photographed for the Harvard Crimson college newspaper. From 1949 to 1950, Glinn worked for Life magazine before becoming a freelancer.

Glinn became an associate member of Magnum in 1951, along with Eve Arnold and Dennis Stock - the first Americans to join the young photo agency - and a full member in 1954. He made his mark with spectacular color series on the South Seas, Japan, Russia, Mexico and California. In 1959 he received the Mathew Brady Award for Magazine Photographer of the Year from the University of Missouri.

In collaboration with the writer Laurens van der Post, Glinn published A Portrait of All the Russias and A Portrait of Japan. His reportages have appeared in Esquire, Geo, Travel and Leisure, Fortune, Life and Paris-Match. He has covered the Sinai War, the US Marine invasion of Lebanon, and Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba. In the 1990s he completed an extensive photo essay on the topic of medical science.

Versatile and technically brilliant, Glinn is one of Magnum's great corporate and advertising photographers. He has received numerous awards for his editorial and commercial photography, including the Best Book of Photographic Reporting from Abroad from the Overseas Press Club and the Best Print Ad of the Year from the Art Directors Club of New York. Glinn has served as president of the American Society of Media Photographers. He was president of Magnum between 1972 and 1975, and was re-elected to the post in 1987. He currently lives in New York.

Education

1946/49 B.A., History and Literature, Harvard University

Awards

Dana Reed Award, Harvard College
Mathew Brady Award, Magazine Photographer of the Year
Best Book of Photographic Reporting from Abroad, Overseas Press Club
Best Print Ad of the Year, Art Director's Club of New York
Best Annual Report of the Year from Financial World, Warner Communications Annual Report

Exhibitions

2005 Havana: The Revolutionary Moment - George Eastman House, Rochester,
USA
2002 Havana: The Revolutionary Moment - Photographs by Burt Glinn - Americas S
Society, New York, USA
2000 Reflections: Photos of Water - Sag Harbor Picture Gallery, Sag Harbor,
New York, USA
1999 Fifty Years Behind a Camera: The Photography of Burt Glinn - Sag Harbor Picture
Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York, USA

Books
2001/02 Havana: The Revolutionary Moment, Umbrage Editions, USA/Dewi Lewis, UK
1968 A Portrait of Japan, William Morrow, USA
1967 A Portrait of All the Russias (with Laurens van der Post), William Morrow, USA;
Hogarth Press, UK
1955 The Dark Eye in Africa (with Laurens van der Post), William Morrow, USA;
Hogarth Press, UK