 An editor at "Jubilee" while Harbutt was working there, Robert Lax, used photographs taken by Harbutt for the front and back cover of his first book of poetry, "The Circus of the Sun".Harbutt joined Magnum Photos and was elected president of the organization twice, first in 1979.He left the group in 1981, citing its increasingly commercial ambitions and the desire to pursue more personal work.