International Women’s Day 2024
This year, Newsha Tavakolian curates a selection of images by the women photographers of Magnum in celebration of International Women's Day on Friday, March 8.
At night, the dark figure of a woman is seen standing out on the shoreline between Russia and the Black Sea. Eyes closed, she holds out a burning flame, the only light to illuminate the scene, almost as an offering to the breaking waves of the vast ocean. The moment, captured by Nanna Heitmann in 2019, is the first of a selection of images curated by Newsha Tavakolian to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day.
Tavakolian has explored the Magnum archive, selecting one image from each woman photographer of Magnum, spanning from Eve Arnold who was the first woman photographer to join Magnum Photos in 1951 to Beirut-based Myriam Boulos who joined the cooperative seventy years later in 2021.
“For centuries women artists weren’t taken seriously,” Tavakolian writes. “On this International Women’s Day, today, I want to salute those who opened the way for women photographers and cheer on the new generation.
“A female awakening is ongoing everywhere. Let us all lift each other up and move forward. As we say in Persian ‘one clap doesn’t make a sound.’ Let’s all make ourselves heard. Happy Women’s Day to everyone!”
