Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo. According to co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson, "Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually."

The photographers Robert Capa, David "Chim" Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and William Vandivert were the founding members (Vice Presidents) of Magnum in 1947, having responded with various degrees of enthusiasm to an idea of Capa's. Seymour, Cartier-Bresson and Rodger were all absent from the meeting at which it was founded. (In response to a letter telling him that he was now a member, Rodger wrote back from Cyprus to say that Magnum seemed a good idea but that "It all sounded too halcyon to be true" when Capa had told him of it and that "I rather dismissed the whole thing from my mind".) Rita Vandivert was the first President. (Magnum's own short history of itself deletes the Vandiverts from the record.) Rodger would cover Africa and the Middle East, Cartier-Bresson would cover the area east of that, Seymour and Vandivert would cover Europe and the United States respectively, and Capa would be free to go anywhere.

Bruce Gilden (born 1946) is a noted street photographer, known for his work in New York City.

While studying sociology at Penn State, he saw Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blowup in 1968. Influenced by the film, he purchased his first camera and began taking night classes in photography at the School of Visual Arts of New York. Fascinated with normal people on the street and the idea of visual spontaneity, Gilden turned to a career in photography. He routinely uses a flash, alerting his subjects to his presence, unlike most street photographers. His first major project was documenting the sensuality of the bodies of the people at Coney Island.

A member of Magnum Photos since 1998, he shot images of Japan's Yakuza mobsters, the homeless, prostitutes, and members of bike gangs between 1995 and 2000. According to Gilden, he was fascinated by the duality and double lives of the individuals he photographed. Gilden is also the subject of Misery Loves Company: The Life and Death of Bruce Gilden, a documentary produced in 2007. He has also photographed rural Ireland and horseracing there, as well as voodoo rituals in Haiti.

Richard Kalvar (b. 1944, Brooklyn, New York) is an American photographer who has been associated with Magnum Photos since 1975.

A trip to Europe in 1966 with a Pentax camera given him by Ducrot inspired him to become a photographer himself. On his return to New York he worked at Modernage photo lab. Two years later he moved to Paris and joined Vu (photo agency).

Kalvar's work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in France, including at Agathe Gaillard gallery and at Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. He has worked around the world, especially in England, France, Italy, Japan and the United States.

Jean Gaumy (born 1948) is a French photographer and filmmaker who has been associated with Magnum Photos since 1977.

Gaumy was born in Pontaillac, Charente-Maritime, France. He attended school in Toulouse and Aurillac and went to university in Rouen. While a student in Rouen, he began working as a freelance photographer to help pay for his education. In 1973 he joined Gamma (agency).

Much of his work has focused on human confinement. In 1975 he began work on two such projects in France: L'hôpital and Les Incarcérés, both of which were published as books. Les Incarcérés was an unprecedented project on French prisons—he was the first to receive permission to photograph them. In 1984 he made his first film, La Boucane. It was nominated for a César in 1986. That year he also began a series of trips aboard trawlers which led to his 2001 publication Pleine Mer. Beginning in 1987 he spent two years documenting Octeville-sur-Mer through the eyes of the so-called village idiot Jean-Jacques. Since the late 1980s he has also traveled often to Iran and has also traveled in Central America and Africa

Elliott Erwitt (b. 26 July 1928 Paris, France) is an advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings— a master of Henri Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment".

In 1939, at the age of ten, Erwitt's family, of Russian origin, emigrated to the United States. Erwitt studied photography and filmmaking at Los Angeles City College and the New School for Social Research, finishing his education in 1950.

Born in Paris of Jewish-Russian immigrant parents, Erwitt served as a photographer's assistant in the 1950s in the United States Army while stationed in France and Germany. Erwitt was influenced by his meeting the famous photographers, Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker. Stryker, the former Director of the Farm Security Administration's photography department, hired Erwitt to work on a photography project for the Standard Oil Company. Erwitt then began a freelance photographer career and produced work for Collier's, Look, Life and Holiday ==magazine..== Joining the Magnum Photos agency in 1953 allowed Erwitt to shoot photography projects around the world.