As legendary as the success story of Magnum is, so mythical is the actual founding of this most famous of all photo agencies. The legend has it that five men - Robert Capa, William Vandivert, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David Seymour - gathered over lunch at MoMA in the spring of 1947 around a Magnum bottle of champagne and decided to establish their own, very special photographers' cooperative. However, this meeting is neither documented nor verified. The earliest recorded source is the entry in the New York State Business Registry on May 22, 1947 - a rather sober legal document, which is published here for the first time on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Magnum Photos, Inc. Magnum Manifesto celebrates the agency's 70th birthday with a publication that not only - but of course also - showcases the famous images that define it.