Oh boy. I'll take, "What is the Bare Minimum Corporate Action Magnum Photos Can Take to Save Face" for $1,000, Alex. https://twitter.com/MagnumPhotos/status/1321393423983824896

On a more serious note, I'm glad that this is happening at all, and that in a post- #MeToo world having these conversations publicly with any degree of transparency is possible.

On the other hand, this all feels pretty silly. We ALL know it's not just one "specific allegation."

Every woman in the photojournalism industry knows it. Everyone who attended one of Harvey's workshops knows it. Magnum Photos knows it. So let's not pretend that the careful investigation of a single incident and a resulting slap on the wrist is an adequate process for justice.

Also, let's not forget that Magnum has entirely dodged the fact that until excruciatingly recently, their archive contained a disgusting number of photos Harvey had taken of CLEARLY LABELED underage women working in the sex trade (by definition: coercive, illegal, rape).

As a group of people who collectively use our craft in the name of social justice (right? in theory?), we need to advocate equally for our colleagues who have been mistreated and abused and those whose lives we're supposed to be documenting with dignity and care.

This is important and nice to hear from Magnum:

This decision affirms Magnum’s ongoing commitment to create a culture of dignity and respect, free of inappropriate conduct within the organisation and among the photographic community.

But I'm really going to need a little more here.

How are you creating a culture of dignity and respect?

Who is going to serve as arbiter for what constitutes inappropriate conduct... someone within your org for whom there are obvious incentives to downplay misconduct?

Instead of hearing about the hasty band-aids Magnum is applying to this whole situation, I'd love to hear about what the agency and its photographers DO stand for. I'd hope that list includes a deep recentering of racial justice and gender equality.

Otherwise, this just feels like crisis management, not a genuine commitment to taking an important legacy organization and firmly establishing that it's capable of continuing to be important in 2020.